Toyota Motor Corp. plans to build a new plant in Tianjin, China, sources close to the matter said Saturday.
The revelation came after sources said last week that the world's biggest automaker, which announced a freeze on plant construction in fiscal 2013, is planning to set up two plants in Guangzhou in China and another in Mexico.
The new plant in Tianjin will start operation in 2018 or 2019 with capacity to produce around 100,000 cars a year, the sources said. Toyota is expected to finalize the plan as early as this summer.
Toyota imposed the new plant freeze after it suffered a capacity glut following the global financial turmoil in 2008, which dampened demand for cars and led the company to review its previous almost unchecked expansion.
At the Tianjin plant, Toyota will likely produce fuel-efficient passenger vehicles under a local brand through a joint venture with a Chinese firm, the sources said. The vehicles would meet stricter environmental regulations in China, where air pollution is a serious social problem.
Toyota is set to announce the plans for the new plants in Guangzhou and Mexico before unveiling the project in Tianjin, the sources said.
China's auto market has topped that in the United States as the world's biggest and it is still growing, although at a slower pace. Toyota is competing there with rivals such as General Motors Co. of the United States and Germany's Volkswagen AG.