Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) has issued a public statement on its news website saying it has decided to end vehicle production at its Saint Petersburg plant in Russia.
A subsidiary TMC company, Hino Motors, is also shelving plans to assemble trucks at a plant under construction in Moscow, which will be sold off after completion of the build according to the Japan Times.
TMC began production of the Camry at the Saint Petersburg plant in 2007 for the Russian market. It was joined by the Toyota RAV4 in 2016 which was also produced for the Kazakh and Belarus markets.
In the statement TMC says it suspended manufacturing operations at the Saint Petersburg plant on March 4 due to the interruption in supply of key materials and parts.
“Since then, we have been closely monitoring the situation and evaluating the future sustainability of our business in Russia,” TMC says.
“During this period we have fully retained our workforce and ensured our facility was ready to re-start production if the circumstances allowed. However, after six months, we have not been able to resume normal activities and see no indication that we can re-start in the future.
“The decision to terminate production of Toyota vehicles in Russia is not one that we have taken lightly.
“Over the last 80 years we have developed our business and our brand with the support of stakeholders around the world. We must now act in a way that allows us to protect the values and principles that our predecessors built up and be confident that we can pass them on to the next generation.
“We have also determined that our operations in Moscow need to be optimised and restructured―with the clear objective of retaining an effective organisation to continue supporting the retail network in providing ongoing service to existing Toyota and Lexus customers in Russia.
“We would like to thank our employees for their hard work and loyalty. In recognition of their valued contribution, we will be offering them assistance for re-employment, re-skilling and well-being, including financial support above legal requirements,” TMC says.
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