Toyota to invest $1.25bn on new factories in China and Mexico

Toyota Motor proposes to build new factories in China and Mexico at a cost of 150bn yen (£844.6m, €1.15bn, $1.25bn).

The Chinese facility will be based in the city of Guangzhou and will produce up to 100,000 Yaris subcompacts a year, Japan's Nikkei newspaper reported.

The Mexican unit will be based in the central state of Guanajuato, and will have a capacity of 200,000 cars a year, Nikkei said, adding that the plant will build a new version of the Corolla sedan for the North American market.

The Chinese factory will open in 2018 while the Mexican factory will open in 2019.

Earnings guidance

In February, Toyota raised its operating profit guidance as a weaker yen raised the value of overseas sales and helped compensate for slumping demand back home.

The world's biggest automaker forecast a record-high operating profit of 2.7tn yen ($22.5bn) for the year ending 31 March, 8% higher than the 2.5tn yen forecast earlier.

The revised guidance, which was widely expected, put the Japanese automaker's operating profit margin forecast at 10% from 9.4% based on the previous projection.

The planned units in China and Mexico will mark an end to a three-year expansion freeze imposed by the firm's president, Akio Toyoda, who has blamed aggressive expansion a decade ago for contributing to quality lapses and a 2009 recall crisis.