BookTitleToyota Tsusho 70-Year History

Summary

Toyota Tsusho 70-Year History

Toyotsu Automotive Equipment Co., Ltd. (TTMEC).Industrial Tech Services Thailand was establishedin 2004. In 2013, Toyota Tsusho Thailand and themachinery-related businesses in Thailand reorganized,and the company name was changed to Toyota TsushoM&E (Thailand) Co., Ltd. PT. Toyota Tsusho Mechanical& Engineering Service Indonesia (TME) was establishedin Indonesia in 1997 to promote engineering projectslocally.4 Deployment of Plant and InfrastructureProjectsBefore its merger with Toyota Tsusho, Tomen Corp.had a long history of involvement in various plant exportsand infrastructure construction projects in SoutheastAsia and the Middle East that enabled the company tocontribute to nation building and economic development.Construction projects for major gas pipelines andrefineries, fertilizer plants, petrochemical plants, powerplants, telecommunications plants, textile factories,airports, and port facilities in Indonesia, Thailand, thePhilippines, Myanmar, Lao PDR, and other countriesfrom the latter half of the 1970s through the 2000s gaveTomen the opportunity to work on constructing socialinfrastructure and develop industrial infrastructure. In1981, Tomen participated in a national direct reducediron project in Egypt. The company invested togetherwith the Japanese government and World Bank Groupto transfer Japanese steel technology to that country.Since then, Tomen, and later Toyota Tsusho, have beenawarded more than 200 billion yen in contracts forthe construction of power generation and transmissionsubstations in Egypt. A joint venture with the Egyptianoil ministry launched in 2011 involved a maritime rigcharter project totaling 60 billion yen. Toyota Tsusho alsolaunched Egypt’s first wind power generation business(262.5 megawatts) in 2017.In Iraq, Tomen had been engaged in the constructionof power plants and substations since the 1980s, and justafter the Gulf War it executed 200 billion yen worth ofcontracts that, together with Iraqi crude oil imports, madea significant contribution to the reconstruction of Iraq.Meanwhile, crude oil imports with Iran started in theearly 1980s, culminating in nearly 3% of all of Japan’scrude oil import volume at its peak. Leveraging thispayment capability allowed Tomen to set up three oilschemes (totaling 8 billion dollars) that benefited Iransignificantly in terms of funding and construction ofthe different types of infrastructures that Iran needed.For this kind of large plant project, Tomen leveragedthe investment and lending power of the Japanesegovernment and other public organizations, playing therole of project organizer in the formation and reaching ofa deal.In recent years, in addition to the electric powerbusiness and construction of facilities at airports andports, Toyota Tsusho, following its merger with Tomen,has also been expanding its capabilities to the operationsof these facilities. With its experience and capabilities,Toyota Tsusho will put every ounce of effort into thedevelopment of the African countries with which it ispredominatelyengaged.5 Development of the Power GenerationBusinessIn the mid-1980s, the U.S. began the privatization ofelectric power businesses, and the trend spread to Asia.Tomen eyed a business opportunity in the independentpower producer (IPP) business pioneered by othergeneral trading companies. The company first becameinvolved in cogeneration projects and wind powergeneration businesses in the U.S. and then, in the 1990s,Solar power generation project in Hawaii, the U.S.History139