Toyota Plastics Supplier Open a New Plant in US

Toyoda Gosei North American Group plans to build a new automotive parts manufacturing plant in Batesville, Mississippi, to make interior and exterior plastic components for the new Toyota Motor Manufacturing Mississippi plant set to begin production in 2010.

By 2010, it plans to employ 120 employees with sales of $31m.

“Today’s announcement by Toyoda Gosei is great news for Batesville and the entire state as Mississippi’s standing in the automotive manufacturing sector continues to grow,” said state governor Haley Barbour.

Toyoda Gosei North America currently has nine manufacturing operations in six states. Its largest plant in Missouri will support the new plant.

Toyoda Gosei’s five product categories worldwide include body sealing systems, interior/exterior systems, optoelectronics, fuel system/functional parts and safety systems.

Hector Fratty

Hector Fratty, DrivingVisionNews President and Founder has been for his entire career in automotive lighting. From 1995 to 2006, he was Valeo Lighting Systems’ chief of R&D, managing a staff of 650 engineers and technicians and a budget of over €70m. He holds 20 patents worldwide. In 2008, after 2 years’ consultancy, he initiated the launch of Driving Vision News, a news pipeline dedicated to keeping the lighting and driver assistance community informed of the latest progress and development in the industry. Hector Fratty presides over the highly‐regarded biennial VISION Congress international automotive lighting and driver assistance symposium. Hector Fratty is also a member of the ISAL steering committees.