Toyoda Gosei starts up second plant in Vietnam for airbags/steering wheels

Japanese automotive parts supplier Toyoda Gosei Co.’s production subsidiary in Vietnam, Toyoda Gosei Haiphong has started operations at its new plant recently. The plant located in Thai Binh, near Hanoi, will produce airbag and steering wheels components.

Spanning an area of 34,000 sq m, the plant is Toyoda’s second in Vietnam. The company invested almost US$25 million to build the plant and will ship all the products to its airbag assembly factories in Europe, Japan, North America and other Southeast Asian countries, said Toyoda Gosei.

Toyoda also says it plans to increase its production capacity in Vietnam within four years to 25 million airbag component/year, an increase of 50% that in its FY2018, and 4 million steering wheels/year, about 70% more than in FY2018.

Safety system products, mainly airbags, are a key business for Toyoda and the company is strengthening its global production capacity.

Toyoda Gosei Haiphong Co. was set up in 2004 to produce car safety products in Vietnam. The Vietnamese unit currently employs 597 workers at the new plant compared to 3,834 at the first factory.

Toyoda also makes airbag parts and steering wheels in countries including China, Indonesia, Mexico and Thailand.