Toyoda Gosei starts production at new plant in Mexico

Kiyosu, Japan – Toyoda Gosei has started production of airbags for automotive safety systems at its new plant in Monterrey, northeastern Mexico.

The new site will raise Toyoda Gosei’s total number of facilities in Mexico to six and will have a capacity to manufacture 8 million bags per year, according to a 17 May statement. 

Operational since March, the new facility has 101 employees and operates under Toyoda Gosei's fully owned subsidiary Tapex Mexicana, SA de CV. 

Toyoda Gosei’s has identified airbags and other automotive safety systems as drivers of growth in its medium-term 2025 business plan.

As part of the plan, the Japanese group is focusing on increasing sales to Japanese automakers and producing bags in cost competitive regions such as Mexico and Vietnam.

Over the five years to 2023, Toyoda Gosei aims to increase airbag production by 1.6 times, to 100 million units.

In April, a Toyoda Gosei subsidiary in China, Toyoda Gosei (Zhangjiagang) Co. Ltd (TGZH), started production of 'millimeter wave compatible' emblems and airbag inflators.

The devices allow the passage of millimeter wave radar that senses the situation around vehicles, and are used particularly for autonomous driving. 

Demand for inflators is also rising with the growing production of airbags in response to stricter safety regulations around the world, according to Toyoda Gosei. 

In China, it noted, these products were previously all procured from suppliers and Toyoda Gosei Group companies in other countries.

But now production started locally at TGZH, Toyoda Gosei said it is better positioned to enhance price competitiveness and supply-capacity for the market.

With around 830 employees, TGZH has the capacity to produce approximately 600,000 millimeter wave compatible emblems and approximately 2.3 million inflators annually.

Toyoda Gosei noted that it mainly purchases inflators from Daicel Corp and Nippon Kayaku Co., Ltd. while producing some in-house.