TakaraTomy to Shift Tomica Production to Vietnam from China

Toy maker Tomy Co., better known as TakaraTomy, plans to fully shift production of its mainstay "Tomica" miniature cars to Vietnam from China in the year to March 2011, company officials said Tuesday.

The company will spend some 500,000 dollars to install Tomica manufacturing facilities at its plant in Haiphong, northern Vietnam.

Initially, the Haiphong plant will make annually 2-3 million Tomica cars from September this year. But the miniature car series will be entirely produced at the Vietnamese foothold three years later, when annual output there will be raised to 15 million units, the officials said.

TakaraTomy once had considered raising Tomica prices in order to cope with soaring labor costs in China. But it managed to avoid the price hike by transferring production to Vietnam, where the costs are less than half that of China, they said.

The company intends to study the possibility of shifting production from China of other products, such as "Plarail" toy trains and "Choro-Q" miniature cars.

It plans to transfer about 30 pct of overall toy production in China to Vietnam three years after the initial move. About 90 pct of the company's toys are made in China at present.

Source: supplychain.cn