Toyota Brasil begins Etios exports to Paraguay, Uruguay

Toyota’s Brazil operations has begun export of the Etios to Paraguay and Uruguay. 2014 has been a busy year at Toyota do Brasil (TDB). On the sales front, the new, radically redesigned Corolla was launched in March and sales have been strong. Production, too, has been on the rise, with a year-on-year increase of over 14 percent in the first nine months of the year. And the company's charitable foundation just received a sustainability award from the Society of Automotive Engineers. 

The commemorative event (pictured above) was attended by around 150 people, representing TDB, distributors from Paraguay and Uruguay, and local government representatives. Stveve St. Angelo, chairman of TDB and managing officer of Toyota, delivered a speech emphasizing the need to strengthen TDB as an export base, and thanked the company's stakeholders for their hard work and contributions over the years.

TDB is Toyota's first production site outside Japan. Production of the Land Cruiser began in May 1959, and by 1968 local production (by weight) had increased from 60 percent to 100 percent.

While annual production at TDB narrowly exceeded 1,500 vehicles in 1963, it has now reached 140,000 units (2013). Much of this dramatic increase is due to production of the Etios at company's new 3.7 million square metre Sorocaba Plant, which went online in September 2012 with initial production capacity of 70,000 units. Besides Paraguay and Uruguay, TDB currently exports to the Etios to Argentina.