Toyota Australia is set to ship its 500,000th vehicle to Saudi Arabia tomorrow, the company announced on Wednesday.

The milestone Toyota Camry is due to be exported from Melbourne on Thursday, 21 October 2010. It will be among more than 1,500 Australian-built Camry and Aurion vehicles leaving Australia that day aboard the vessel, Neptune Leader.

Toyota's Australian manufacturing plant in Altona produces Hybrid Camry, four-cylinder Camry, and V6 Aurion sedans for domestic and export markets.

Toyota Australia Executive Director Chris Harrod said the company began exporting vehicles to the Middle East in 1996. Since then, more than 870,000 Altona-made vehicles have been exported.

"During the past 14 years Toyota Australia has combined its domestic marketing experience with its extensive knowledge of the Middle East markets to enhance the status of the export Camry," said Mr Harrod.

"This has evolved to a point where our Camry is now the number one selling passenger vehicle in the Middle East."

He said more than 60 per cent of the vehicles that rolled off the production line at the Altona plant were destined for overseas customers, with many based in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia.

"We export to more than 20 destinations worldwide and the Australian Camry competes in the Middle East with vehicles from almost every world vehicle manufacturer," said Mr Harrod.

"In the Middle East we have Toyota Australia representatives located in Bahrain who act as our eyes and ears and help to maintain relationships with local distributors and customers."

Toyota Australia launched its export program in 1986 when it exported a small shipment of Coronas to New Zealand.

In 2008 a record 101,668 locally-built vehicles, worth $1.3 billion, were exported overseas.

Despite the global economic downturn, Toyota Australia's export total in 2010 is expected to be more than 80,000 cars.