Toyota Russia Adds Second Shift at St. Petersburg Plant

VIENNA – Toyota Motor Mfg. Russia introduces a second shift at its plant in St. Petersburg. With the second shift, annual capacity will double from 25,000 to 50,000 vehicles.

“This second-shift launch is the most significant production ramp-up at TMMR since the start of production at the St. Petersburg plant,” TMMR President Yoshinori Matsunaga says in a prepared statement.

The new second shift adds 600 jobs to the St. Petersburg plant’s current workforce of 1,750.

The auto maker assembled 11,275 Camry sedans from complete-knocked-down kits in first-half 2012, up 51% from like-2011.

In February, TMMR announced plans to add stamping and resin-molding processes to its production in 2014. The expansion will further promote localization in Russia, with domestic content increasing from 15% to 30%.

Toyota launched the Russian plant in December 2007 but continued sourcing Camrys from Japan in addition to building cars locally.

One goal of the second-shift introduction is to enable the plant to fully cover Camry demand in Russia.

“I don't want to have bridge production between Russia and Japan anymore,” Toyota Motor Europe President and CEO Didier Leroy told WardsAuto last year when asked about the parallel sourcing.

Distributor Toyota Motor Russia stopped ordering CBU Camry vehicles from Japan this summer.