Toyota today shipped its 50,000^th Altona-built Camry as the company’s exports climb towards an all-time record in 1997.

The milestone Camry, carrying Victoria’s Minister for Industry, Science & Technology, the Hono Mark Birrell, was driven aboard the NYK vessel Jingu Maru at a ceremony held at the new Toyota Export Facility at Webb Dock in the Port of Melbourne.

The left-hand-drive Camry is one of 20,000 to be shipped this year to the six Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) states of the Middle East - Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar.

Toyota Australia this year will export over 25,000 complete Camrys to rank it the nation’s largest car exporter. The company also exports completely-knocked-down (CKD) Camry kits to Malaysia and Vietnam and engines and components to a variety of destinations.

This year the company’s overall export revenue will reach an all-time high of around $470 million.

This is a 42 per cent rise over the 1996 figure of $330 million and represents a ten-fold increase in the seven years since 1990. It puts Toyota well on track to achieve its goal of almost $700 million by the year 2000, while forecasts out to 2005 put the figure at near $1 billion.

The President of Toyota Australia, Mr Sam Komori, said the 50,000^th milestone had been reached 12 years after Toyota exported its first car, a Corona, to New Zealand in 1985.

"However, the next 50,000 export units will be achieved over the next two years," he said.

Toyota ships its cars through a new export facility at Webb Dock developed in conjunction with Patrick Stevedores/TDG Autocare at a cost of $2 million.

The site has space for 1550 export vehicles of which 1200 can be stored under heavy duty netting to prevent costly hail damage.

Mr Komori said the capacity of Toyota’s Altona manufacturing plant will be increased over the Christmas holiday to meet increased domestic and export orders for the new CamryVienta range.

The plant was announced in 1991, began production in July 1994 and was commissioned in March 1995.

This year it will achieve its initial planned annual production target of 80,000 Camry/Vienta and Corolla units with around 30 per cent of Camry output earmarked for export.

The increased activity has translated into extra jobs with around 400 new people joining the Toyota Australia’s manufacturing payroll this year.

Mr Komori said that while the Australian domestic market was expected to reach an all time high of over 700,000 units in 1997, growth in future years was expected to continue on a modest scale.

"Therefore export growth is essential if the Australian car manufacturing industry is to remain viable into the 21^st century," he said.

"With car manufacturing nations around the world competing for export markets, our export customers know they can demand, and get, the highest quality standards.

"Since our export and domestic cars are built from the same components on the same production line at Altona, the ultimate beneficiary is the Australian consumer."