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Toyota to pull out of Australia by 2017, ending country's auto industry
Toyota on Monday said it will stop making cars in Australia in less than four years, bringing the country’s auto industry shuddering to a halt, despite appeals by Prime Minister Tony Abbott. The Japanese auto giant said production of vehicles and engines would finish at the end of 2017, throwing into doubt 3,900 jobs at its Altona plant in a Melbourne suburb, and another 150 jobs at a separate design center. The move will close the book on Australia’s 66-year-old auto sector, with some 50,000 jobs across the sector in componentry and other areas expected to go. Labor opposition leader Bill Shorten described it as ... (full story)