Toyota names 2017 end, Australian car making to cease
Dr Remy Davison
By Rémy Davison
Toyota’s announcement represents the end of automotive manufacturing in Australia.
In less than 10 months, Ford, Holden and Toyota have decided to close down their car manufacturing operations, affecting thousands of jobs in Victoria and South Australia.
If Toyota, the largest and the most efficient automotive producer in the world, cannot survive without industry assistance packages, it demonstrates how vulnerable car producers are if governments fail to support them.
Whereas Ford had no real export market, and plummeting Falcon sales, Toyota was exporting 70,000 locally-made vehicles per annum to the Middle East and other markets, with a target of 100,000 each year.
This is the snowball effect of the rapid shutdown of Australian car industry. Toyota, Ford and Holden are tightly integrated with the Australian automotive parts industry. In the wake of Ford’s and Holden’s announced departures, some components manufacturers have already decided to close their doors.
Toyota’s decision reflects that reality: if Toyota cannot source components in volume close to its plant in Altona, then it makes no economic sense to continue manufacturing locally. Like Nissan and Mitsubishi before it, Toyota has made a strategic decision to become a mere importer.
Victoria is the most affected by the decisions of Toyota, Holden and Ford, but South Australia, NSW, Queensland and Western Australia will also suffer job losses in the components sector, as a consequence of the car makers’ withdrawal.
The industry was not helped by a Productivity Commission (PC) position paper which viewed the sector’s future in pessimistic terms. The PC employed no modelling data to support its claims, although its final report – long after the horse has bolted – is not due until March.
Prime Minister Abbott stated in response to Toyota’s closure that, “while some jobs end, other jobs start”.
As Australia de-industrialises – terminally – in which industries are the secure jobs of the future to be found?
Dr Rémy Davison is Senior Lecturer in International Relations in the School of Social Science, and Associate Director of the Monash European and EU Centre.
This article originally appeared on The Conversation.