BookTitleToyota Tsusho 70-Year History

Summary

Toyota Tsusho 70-Year History

come too far to turn back. Ultimately, thedecision was made to go it alone. The projectmanager in Toyota Tsusho’s Metals Divisionfelt at the time that the company was“makinga total leap into the dark.”It was a newexperience?Toyota Tsusho had never carriedout manufacturing as an independent operatorbefore.The project did not get off to an auspiciousstart.“It was frustrating,”says the manager.“We had to start from scratch, asking veteransfrom aluminum alloy manufacturers to helpus get the names of manufacturers that madethe equipment we needed and the names of thepeople in charge.”Slowly they gained experience?makinglayout decisions, selecting equipment,recruiting and training personnel,implementing quality control and cost control,and overseeing the operations of the wholefactory?and got some good results. Thecompany was particularly careful to prioritizesafety, understanding the risk that even a smallmistake could lead to a serious accident.Poland, China, India, andHome to JapanToyota Tsusho was establishing moltenaluminum businesses in many countries atthe same time. Just before breaking groundin Indonesia, the company set up a plant inPoland as a joint venture with Daiki AluminumIndustry, following the same pattern it hadused in the U.S. It also launched moltenaluminum businesses in three locations inChina: Changchun, Guangzhou, and Tianjin.Returning to Japan, Toyota Tsusho acceleratedcommercialization and launched operations inAichi (Tahara); Kyushu (Kanda, Kurume); andHokkaido.Toyota Tsusho now has bases for deployingits molten aluminum business in Japan, theU.S., Poland, Indonesia, China, Mexico, andIndia. Toyota Tsusho is No. 1 in Asia andinternationally has a best-in-class status.Toyota Tsusho owes its success in the moltenaluminum business to its long-standingcommitment to the use of aluminum as aAluminum scrapRotary furnaceSuction potMolten aluminum transportation190