BLUE SPRINGS, Miss. — Toyota Auto Body Co., Ltd. (TAB) will build its first U.S. manufacturing location in North Mississippi to supply a new Toyota assembly plant being built in Blue Springs. The $180 million TAB plant is the first supplier facility to be announced for the Blue Springs project. According to an announcement from Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour’s office, the specific site for the TAB plant has not yet been chosen, but a number of sites are under consideration within a 25-mile radius of the Blue Springs plant. Blue Springs is in the northeast corner of Mississippi, near Tupelo. The proposed Auto Parts Manufacturing Mississippi Inc. plant will employ 260 workers and begin production by 2010 to coincide with the startup of the new Highlander SUV plant. The TAB plant, which will be called Auto Parts Manufacturing Mississippi Inc., will provide stamped parts, body weld parts and plastic parts for the Highlander to the Blue Springs facility. The company plans to incorporate in Mississippi next month. Currently, the Highlander is manufactured exclusively in Japan. According to Dennis Cuneo, head site consultant for Toyota, the TAB facility will also produce repair parts for the Highlander. “Typically, when Toyota enters into contracts with suppliers, there is a requirement to provide service parts, and those parts would be made here,” Cuneo says. “You have a local source of supply. The supplier simply extends its production runs.” That means the Mississippi location will be the first domestic source of parts for the Highlander in North America, and could conceivably cut delivery times for suppliers to the repair industry. The total Mississippi supplier network is expected to bring approximately 3,000 jobs to the region, with five or more tier-one suppliers possibly building facilities there. Much of central and northern Mississippi has been hit hard by plant closings in the furniture and food manufacturing industries, and the presence of new automotive parts manufacturing companies will be a welcome boost to the state’s economy. “During our recent economic development mission to Japan the Mississippi delegation visited with Toyota Auto Body officials and came away impressed with the company’s high standards and interest in doing business in Mississippi. I am very pleased this outstanding company will find a new home in North Mississippi as a major supplier to Toyota’s newest auto assembly plant,” Barbour said in a prepared statement. The Blue Springs assembly plant will initially produce up to 150,000 Highlanders per year. A later expansion will add a second vehicle and more capacity, but Toyota has yet to release details of those plans. Ground was already broken on the Toyota Motor Manufacturing Mississippi plant, which is expected to cost $1.3 billion. Misao Fukuda, a 24-year Toyota veteran, has been named president of the company. TAB, based in Japan, is 56.03% owned by Toyota Motor Corp.
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