Toyota axes 2600 jobs from Altona plant
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Toyota Australia will axe 2600 jobs when it shuts down its car manufacturing plant at Altona in Melbourne's west on October 3.
The car maker on Tuesday officially announced the specific timetable for the closure which will slice its Australian workforce down to one third of its current 3900 employees. The actual date came almost three years after Toyota originally signalled it would close some time late in 2017.
The Toyota shutdown will come almost three weeks before General Motors Holden ends car manufacturing at its plant at Elizabeth in Adelaide's northern suburbs in what will be the final chapter in Australia's car manufacturing history.
A former executive chairman of Toyota Australia, John Conomos, who worked for almost 30 years building up Toyota's manufacturing capability, said it was "devastating". "To see it go because of external circumstances is just heartbreaking," he said.
![Toyota Australia will shut its car-making plant in outer Melbourne on October 3, with 2600 jobs to go in the shut-down.](/content/dam/images/g/t/s/8/e/c/image.related.afrArticleLead.620x350.gu2hmb.png/1485850256339.jpg)
Holden said on January 13 it would cease car-making at Elizabeth on October 20. That announcement came after Holden first revealed in December 2013 that it was planning to stop car-making in Australia, at a time when then prime minister Tony Abbott and his treasurer Joe Hockey took a hardline stance on ending billions of taxpayer subsidies which had been paid to car manufacturers over decades.
Ford shut its car-making plant at Broadmeadows in Melbourne in October 2016 after dwindling sales of its locally-made vehicles made its local operations unviable.
Toyota Australia president Dave Buttner said on Tuesday the company would stop building the Aurion vehicle in August at Altona, while Camry Hybrid vehicles would cease being manufactured in September. The Toyota Camry petrol version would be the last off the assembly line in early October.
Mr Buttner said the company would keep operating both morning and afternoon shifts until the final closure date. This would mean that total production of 61,000 vehicles would be achieved for the year. This comprised 26,600 vehicles for the domestic market, and 34,400 cars for export.
Toyota would then shift to a "national sales and distribution" model, where it would consolidate all its corporate functions to a Melbourne headquarters. This would take effect by January 1, 2018.
The shut-down of manufacturing in Melbourne and the consolidation of roles currently performed in Sydney would cut the number of Toyota employees from 3900 currently to "approximately 1300".
Toyota workers were informed of the closure timetable at the Altona plant on Tuesday afternoon. Toyota first revealed it too would end car making in Australia in early 2014, just a few weeks after Holden made its dramatic announcement that it would end manufacturing.
A fourth car maker, Mitsubishi Motors Australia scrapped local car assembly in 2008 from its plant at Tonsley Park in Adelaide's southern suburbs after its Japanese parent decided the economics didn't stack up.