Toyota Motor Corp., Japan's largest automaker, began building a second plant in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province today to meet rising demand in the world's second-largest vehicle market.

The new plant will make Camry sedans and Yaris compacts, Liang Jing, an official in the management department of Toyota's venture in Guangzhou, said by phone today. The factory will take more than a year to build, she added.

Work on the factory, Toyota's seventh in China, follows the opening of its third plant in the northern city of Tianjin last month. The company aims to boost sales in the country by a third this year and to grab a 10 percent share of the Chinese car market by 2010.

"Toyota is on track to become the biggest automaker in China within three to five years," said Yale Zhang, a director at CSM Asia Corp., which advises carmakers in China. "The automaker doesn't have any obvious weak points in its competition with other rivals in China."

Guangzhou Toyota Motor Co., Toyota's venture with Guangzhou Automobile Group Co., started making cars last year with a designed annual production capacity of 200,000. The venture, which began operating two shifts in October, aims to make 150,000 Camry sedans this year, Liang said.

"

Related readings:  Green drive sees diesel cars as an alternative  China aims to increase car recycling rate  Ambitious road ahead of country's car industry  Automakers flex muscle in Shanghai

The new plant will boost Toyota's total capacity in Guangzhou to 500,000 units a year, China Business News reported today, citing an unidentified official at the venture.

Toyota's total production capacity in China is about 620,000 units, Yang Hongjian, the carmaker's Beijing-based spokeswoman, said by phone today.

The automaker, based in Toyota City, Japan, had a 6.5 percent share of China's car market last year. It nearly doubled its sales in the country to 281,160 in 2006 from a year earlier, according to CSM's Zhang.

China's overall vehicle market grew 25 percent to 7.22 million last year, as the country surpassed Japan as the world's second-largest auto market behind the U.S.

(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)