Toyota delays plan to start building Lexus in China

Toyota Motor Corp is likely to delay building its premium Lexus brand in China for at least a few years, as growth in China's auto market slows to a crawl and a weak yen makes it cheaper to keep making cars in Japan.

Toyota wants to focus on strengthening the Lexus brand in China and increasing sales in the country to well above 100,000 vehicles a year before investing what could be hundreds of millions of dollars if it was to build a new assembly line, two company executives told Reuters.

The Japanese firm is also reluctant to share control of the Lexus business with a domestic joint venture partner - a requirement for foreign carmakers building and selling vehicles in China.