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Rockefeller, Toyota Mark Milestone At W.va. Plant

Sen. Jay Rockefeller is returning this week to what he considers one of the signature achievements of his nearly 50-year career, the Toyota manufacturing plant in Buffalo. Rockefeller will join Toyota Motor Corp. chairman Shoichiro Toyoda and others in celebrating production of the 10 millionth unit on Wednesday afternoon.

BUFFALO, W.Va. (AP) -- Sen. Jay Rockefeller is returning this week to what he considers one of the signature achievements of his nearly 50-year career, the Toyota manufacturing plant in Buffalo.

Rockefeller will join Toyota Motor Corp. chairman Shoichiro Toyoda and others in celebrating production of the 10 millionth unit on Wednesday afternoon.

In March, Toyota announced a $45 million expansion of the Buffalo plant that will create 80 jobs.

It increases the plant's annual production capacity of six-speed automatic transmissions from about 400,000 to 520,000.

The transmissions are produced by Toyota Motor Manufacturing West Virginia Inc. for the Avalon, Camry, Lexus RX350, Sienna and Venza.

The expansion will increase the plant's work force to about 1,200 employees.

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