Toyota Motor has broken ground for its US$600m second Brazilian car assembly factory in 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 said at the ceremony.

The factory will start manufacturing sedan and hatchback versions of a newly developed compact car called Etios 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.

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The automaker initially planned annual production of 150,000 compact cars at the second plant from 2011 but the financial crisis that erupted in autumn 2008 forced a delay in the start of the plant’s construction and initial capacity cut.

 

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