Toyota Forklifts Mark 1 Million Units in Cumulative Production

Tokyo―TOYODA AUTOMATIC LOOM WORKS, LTD. (TAL) and TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION (TMC) announced today that the worldwide cumulative production of Toyota forklifts has reached 1 million units. The line-off ceremony for the millionth unit held today was attended by many guests, including TAL Chairman Yoshitoshi Toyoda and TMC Chairman Shoichiro Toyoda.

Toyota is the first Japanese forklift manufacturer whose cumulative forklift production has reached 1 million units―a milestone accomplished 39 years and 6 months after Toyota began producing Type LA 1-ton forklifts in March 1956.

TAL is responsible for developing and producing Toyota forklifts, while TMC sells the forklifts and supplies some of their engines.

The demand for forklifts has increased since the early 1960s, when Japan's high economic growth began, and Toyota has always anticipated the highly diversified needs of its customers. Apart from providing a broad selection of accessories, for example, Toyota was the first in Japan to offer compact forklifts whose specifications enabled them to be operated by personnel with an ordinary driver's license. Toyota's present forklift lineup includes truck capacities ranging from 0.5 tons to 40 tons.

Toyota moved energetically at home and overseas to build up its production system. To meet increased demand, the TAL Takahama Plant was built in 1970 to exclusively produce forklifts. Overseas, Toyota signed a technical assistance contract with Manitou B.F. in France in 1987, and established Toyota Industrial Equipment Manufacturing, Inc. (TIEM) in Indiana, U.S., in 1990.

For domestic sales, Toyota established Chubu Toyota Lift, Ltd., Japan's first dealer specializing in forklifts, in 1960. Today, Toyota's domestic sales network consists of 44 dealers and 300 outlets, together with an outstanding after-sales service network.

In overseas sales, Toyota's first exports were sample shipments to Thailand in 1958. Its overseas sales network now consists of 62 distributors in 75 countries.

In addition to its forklift operations, Toyota is actively developing unmanned conveyance equipment, such as automatic guided vehicles―a market segment where demand has been significantly increasing. Toyota will continue to develop and market user-oriented products in the distribution industry under the slogan "Toyota provides integrated distribution solutions."