SOROCABA, Sep. 8, 2010 (Kyodo News International) -- Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE:TM) broke ground Wednesday on a $600 million second Brazilian car assembly factory, located in the city of Sorocaba, Sao Paulo.
''The market in Brazil is expanding, so we have decided to build a new factory,'' Toyota Vice President Atsushi Niimi said at a ground-breaking ceremony.
''Brazil is an important market for Toyota, so we will seek to expand sales here,'' he told participants at the ceremony, including Sao Paulo Gov. Alberto Goldman and Japanese Ambassador to Brazil Ken Shimanouchi.
The factory will start manufacturing a newly developed compact car in the second half of 2012 with its annual output of 70,000 units to be marketed in Brazil and abroad, Toyota said.
Toyota's combined annual output in Brazil will amount to 140,000 units, including the 70,000 Corolla passenger cars it manufactures at the existing plant in Indaiatuba in the same Brazilian state.
The automaker initially planned annual production of 150,000 compact cars at the second plant from 2011, but the financial crisis that erupted in the fall of 2008 forced a delay in the start of the plant's construction.
