The first phase of the Toyota forklift manufacturing base was recently put into operation in Jiaozhou, a county-level city in Qingdao, Shandong province.

The Toyota forklift manufacturing base in Qingdao, Shandong province. [Photo/Guanhai News]

The base will become Shandong province's largest forklift production project once it is fully operational. Invested in by Toyota Group, a Fortune Global 500 company, this is an advanced manufacturing and automation high-tech project.

It is supported by the State, and is set to contribute to Shandong's efforts in expanding in the global electric forklift market. It will also advance the layout of unmanned forklifts in Shandong, said industry insiders.

The first phase of the project, which involves a total investment of $132 million, spans over 13.33 hectares. Construction on the first phase of the project began in February 2022. It consists of production workshops, R&D centers, product exhibition halls, and other comprehensive buildings, all of which began trial operation in December last year.

The project will promote smart factory construction, and will realize several innovative applications such as the remote maintenance of equipment, online management of production processes, and real-time updates of supply chain information.

This support project will help Qingdao to build an intelligent manufacturing equipment industry chain. It will also promote the deep integration of the digital economy and the real economy.

Once it is in full operation, the project will be capable of producing 110,000 forklifts annually, with an output value of 6 billion yuan ($829.23 million). It will have also created more than 3,000 jobs.