Confirmed: Toyota To Close Australian Manufacturing Facilities, Design Centre

Toyota, Australia’s last remaining automotive manufacturer, this afternoon has confirmed what many have suspected for some time: it’s pulling out of Australia in 2017.

First Ford pulled out, then Holden, now Toyota. The Australian manufacturing industry is now in quite a state.

The company issued a statement today, saying that it would shutter its Australian manufacturing facility in Port Melbourne, Victoria, while considering a scaling back of the other facility dedicated to design and evaluation work.

The Port Melbourne plant was established in 1959, and today employs 3900 workers who build the Camry, Camry Hybrid and Aurion vehicles for the company.

President of the Toyota Motor Company, Akio Toyoda, said in a statement that the company would still sell cars in Australia, it just wouldn’t make them here due to a tough market:

“We believed that we should continue producing vehicles in Australia, and Toyota and its workforce here made every effort. However, various negative factors such as an extremely competitive market and a strong Australian dollar, together with forecasts of a reduction in the total scale of vehicle production in Australia, have forced us to make this painful decision.”

You can read the full statement here.