Toyota plans to sell 9.85 million vehicles worldwide in 2008, the company said Tuesday, setting an ambitious target despite worries about a slowing U.S. car market, as it tries to become the world’s top automaker.

Toyota also said it plans to produce 9.95 million vehicles worldwide next year, up 5 percent from this year — the same as the projected annual percentage jump for Toyota’s global sales.

Toyota Motor, whose small, fuel-efficient vehicles are reaping the benefits of soaring gas prices, raised its 2008 forecast to 9.85 million in vehicle sales, despite fears of a slowdown in its key U.S. market.

Toyota’s forecasts could put it ahead of General Motors, the world’s largest automaker by vehicle sales. General Motors hasn’t given a forecast for next year, but estimated 9.2 million in vehicle sales in 2007. In 1978, the U.S. automaker created an unbeaten record when it sold 9.55 million units.

As demand slows down in the U.S. and European markets, global automakers are counting on markets like India, China and Russia, where rising incomes are leading to high growth rates. Toyota Motor opened a factory in St. Petersburg last week and estimates a 25% rise in Russia sales next year.

Toyota, the maker of models like the Camry and Prius hybrids, estimated 2.27 million in vehicle sales in its home market of Japan and 7.58 million in overseas sales for the next year. In Asia excluding Japan, the company is looking at a 20% increase in sales, compared with a 1% rise in the United States.

“At the beginning of the year, we wondered if the total auto market would reach 8 million, and by mid-year we were looking at 8.5 million. Now it’s possible the market will exceed 9 million. We need to figure out how to meet demand,” President Katsuaki Watanabe told media in Nagoya, Japan.

Last month, Toyota reported an 11% increase in profits for its second quarter. For 2008, the company is budgeting for global production of 9.95 million units, up 5% from this year’s level.

“We think these are achievable numbers and take a positive stance on them,” Citigroup said in a research note. “Toyota’s range abounds in fuel-efficient vehicles and it was also ahead of the pack in commercializing mass-produced hybrids. It is also boosting diesel engines in alliance with Isuzu Motors. We like the way it is set to play to its strengths in expanding earnings by bringing to mass production vehicles with superior gas mileage in 2008 and beyond,” said analyst Noriyuki Matsushima.

For the first nine months of this year, Toyota sold 7.05 million vehicles sold worldwide, barely trailing General Motors’ tally of 7.06 million. The final numbers for the year will be out in January.

Goldman Sachs said in an analyst note that while the company’s U.S. and Japan targets were ambitious for next year, overall sales could come in at more than 10 million vehicles.

Toyota’s shares rose 1.3% on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Wednesday, closing at 6,180 yen ($54.14). Later in New York, its American depositary receipts, which represent two Japanese shares, gained 1.5%, or $1.62, to $108.56, equivalent to 6,197 yen in Tokyo.

Guangzhou Toyota Motor Co., Ltd (GTMC), Toyota’s second joint venture in China, aims to increase its sales target by 17% in 2008, powered by launching new models and the expansion of output capacity, market sources reported.

GTMC estimates a projected sales volume of 210,000 vehicles next year, including 175,000 units of Camry premier sedan and 35,000 Yaris hatchback, which are scheduled to sell nationwide in the middle of 2008.

Driven by soaring demand in premier class segment, the company raised its sales target twice to 170,000 units this year. The sales of Camry, the only model of GTMC in the mid-to-high segment, beat Honda’s Accord as the year’s best selling model, and reported a total sale of 153,000 units for the first 11 months.

Yuan Zhongrong, the executive vice president of Guangzhou Toyota, expected the competition in the premier class segment to be much more intense next year compared to this year.

Its rival Honda will begin to sell new Accord tomorrow, with an expected sales volume of 185,000 units next year. In response, Toyota is planning to launch Yaris hatchback, the Japanese car maker’s global model, and to expand its dealership network to 180 stores.

Toyota, a leading car maker from Japan, has added capacity and is actively launching new models to grab bigger market share. In line with its expansion in China, the company expects to take a 10% market share on mainland by 2010, up 5% from last year.

A crash involving a Dump truck closed sent one person to the hospital and closed a stretch of a heavily traveled road in Cherry Hill Friday.

The accident happened at about 5 a.m. at Berlin and Evesham Roads.

The Dump truck driver suffered non life threatening injuries and was taken to an area hospital for treatment.

Authorities said the road remained closed while crews worked to clear a fuel spill that leaked from the truck.

The cause of the crash is under investigation.

A FORMER steel worker now a quadriplegic after a 47-tonne Dump truck ran over his car has been awarded almost $11m in damages.

The New South Wales Supreme Court today finalised the compensation claim by Alan Kendrick, and the money will be paid in equal share by BlueScope Steel and the trucking company Australian Steel Mill Services (ASMS).

The workplace accident occurred in July 2000 as Mr Kendrick, then a blast furnace operator, had just started his drive home from BlueScope’s Port Kembla site, near Wollongong.

The truck ran over Mr Kendrick’s car at night on a narrow stretch of internal road as they tried to pass each other head-on.

In his ruling late last month, Justice Clifton Hoeben found BlueScope Steel had failed to provide safe road conditions while ASMS failed to properly train its drivers.

Today, he finalised the payout, putting it at $16.4m but then deducting $5.7m for Mr Kendrick’s “contributory negligence”, leaving $10.7m.

Mr Kendrick did not appear in the court.

Summit Hill opened bids for two items Friday, each of which drew a quote from one bidder.

The first bid, from S.A. Comunale Co. of Barberton, Ohio, offered to install a sprinkler system at a new fire station and community center the borough will begin building in 2008. The cost for the system was projected at $72,318.

The other bid was $34,000 for a Dump truck with snow plow.

The borough building project will involve razing of the borough’s current building and the construction of two new buildings, which will house borough offices, police and fire stations, and a community center.

Estimated costs for the project are expected to total about $3.5 million, according to Scott Shearer from Public Financial Management Inc. of Harrisburg, one of the project’s financial advisers.

Of that amount, $1.25 million will come from a matching state grant, and another $200,000 will come in the form of funds the borough has managed to save.

Shearer said at a meeting that he hopes council members will consider floating a $2.1 million bond to cover the rest of the costs. In order to pay the amount back over 25 years, the property tax may rise by more than 1 mill in 2009.

Because the matching grant money will not be made available to the borough until it has other financing in place, council will need to finance the full amount of the project up-front. It will then be reimbursed by the state.

If council votes on the bond issue at its reorganization meeting in three weeks, Shearer said it is likely the funds will be in place by February.

The second bid, from the Kovatch Mobile Equipment Corp. of Nesquehoning, offered a 2004 Ford dump truck — complete with snow plow and cinder spreader — for $34,000. An F-550 4 by 4 model, the truck has 30,209 miles on it.

Borough Secretary Kira Michalik said the sprinkler bid will be reviewed by the project’s architect, and both bids will be looked over by the borough solicitor before council makes a decision.

The bids are scheduled to be discussed and acted upon at the borough’s reorganization meeting at 7 p.m. Jan. 7.

Police are investigating a traffic accident involving a dump truck and a car, causing some delays for motorist traveling in the northbound lane of Babcock Street.

The crash happened about 9:15 a.m. on the 4700 block of Babcock, not far from the Bank of America branch, officials said. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

Traffic in the northbound lane could be delayed for at least 30 minutes as workers clear the accident site.

Mack Trucks‘ deliveries continued their slump in November, dropping 49 percent from the same month in 2006, its parent company Volvo AB reported Thursday.

But the market forces behind the weak truck demand have changed since earlier this year, when new emissions standards caused truck deliveries to plummet. Slow housing construction and freight demand are now to blame for the weak demand, which Mack expects to continue into 2008.

Mack delivered 1,539 trucks in November, down from 3,016 in the same month last year. Mack deliveries are a direct representation of demand for its trucks. The company does not manufacture trucks on speculation, but responds to orders from dealers.

Mack’s deliveries are slumping only in North America, which accounts for 70 percent of its November deliveries. In South America and Asia, Mack sales are enjoying robust growth because of increased marketing efforts in foreign countries experiencing economic growth.

Mack products are sold in more than 45 countries, and the number of trucks sold in the international market has tripled in the past four years, Mack spokesman John Walsh said.

”The growth in our international business is attributable to a number of factors, including an intensified focus on growing this part of our business, healthier and more stable economies in many parts of the world, a weaker U.S. dollar, and, in our particular case, becoming part of the Volvo Group, which has given us access to markets and resources we simply didn’t have before,” Walsh said.

But international sales remain a small market for Mack. So that success has only softened the blow for Mack’s downturn in the North American truck market, where sales so far this year are down 59 percent compared to last year.

Mack braced for a downturn in fall of 2006 by announcing it would lay off some of its 1,040 workers at its Lower Macungie Township plant, where it makes heavy-duty trucks. The company laid off 350 employees.

Stricter emission rules that took effect in January caused U.S. truck sales, including Mack’s, to plunge. Truck buyers stocked up on trucks in 2006 before the more expensive 2007 models hit the market. The company initially expected the slump to last six months, but then the housing market went bust. Heavy-duty trucks are used in the garbage, construction and freight industries.

In addition to its Lower Macungie plant, Mack employs about 1,000 people at its Allentown headquarters and testing site.