Toyota Expanding Thailand Diesel-Engine Plant

Toyota will boost its diesel engine output in Thailand by 290,000 units to 610,000 a year at a cost of ¥40 billion ($507.4 million).

The expansion at the auto maker’s 25-year-old Thai engine-production subsidiary, Siam Toyota Mfg., will create 450 jobs.

Toyota says in a statement the increase of its production capacity of diesel engines used in its Innova MPV will meet growing demand in emerging markets.

The latest plant expansion, scheduled for completion by 2015, comes after Toyota spent TB6 billion ($195.2 million) in January to step up production of gasoline engines by 100,000 units annually in 2014.

Siam Toyota opened its second diesel-engine plant at Amata Nakorn Industrial Estate, Chonburi province, in July. Siam Toyota President Shigeru Murai says that facility was to come online in 2008, but the project was delayed because of the effects of the U.S. and European economic crisis.