InsideJapan News Network

Japanese car manufacturer Toyota has announced plans to cease production at a factory in Fremont, California.

The factory is jointly owned by Toyota and General Motors, which announced it too will pull out of the plant earlier this year.

Now, production of the Japanese vehicles will be moved to the Texas, Canada and Japan.

In a statement, Toyota said that it would "not be economically viable" to continue manufacturing at the California plant, which is set to be completely closed down on March 31st next year.

Toyota's executive vice-president for North America Atsushi Niimi said "This is most unfortunate and we deeply regret having to take this action."

The car industry has been one of the worst hit by the recession with global demand for such high value vehicles plummeting as people tighten their belts.

Toyota has posted losses for the past three quarters and earlier this week also announced it is to suspend production at one of its other plants.

Written by Mark Smith.


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