Toyota mulls shifting Korea-bound Camry output, Nikkei reports

TOKYO (Reuters) -- Toyota Motor Corp. is considering shifting production of South Korea-bound Camry autos to the United States from Japan to help lower export costs, the Nikkei business daily reported.

A historically strong yen, which is pressuring Japan's export-oriented manufacturers, and a free trade agreement between the United States and South Korea have led the automaker to mull the move to reduce costs, the Nikkei said Monday.

Mike Goss, spokesman for Toyota's North American manufacturing operations in Erlanger, Ky., said nothing has been decided about exporting the model to Korea. The Camry is built at two U.S. plants -- in Georgetown, Ky., and in the Subaru of Indiana Automotive Inc. factory in Lafayette Ind.

Toyota has struggled for years to keep up with U.S. demand for the model, running overtime and expanding factory capacity as sales routinely topped 35,000-40,000 sales a month.

It remains the best-selling car in the United States, but has sold fewer than 26,000 a month on average through August of this year as supplies were crimped by the March earthquake in Japan. The Camry has been redesigned for the 2010 model year.

Toyota has exported its U.S.-built vehicles to Taiwan, Europe and other markets in the past. So far this year, it has shipped about 5,800 Avalons to the Middle East.

Despite the soaring yen, which erodes Japanese exporters' foreign earnings and makes their goods more expensive overseas, Toyota has pledged to keep a minimum level of production at home to protect Japanese manufacturing.

The yen is trading near the record high of 75.94 hit last month.

Lindsay Chappell contributed to this report.