Toyota sees exports rising

Toyota sees exports rising

TOKYO (Reuters): Toyota Motor Corp said yesterday it expected
exports from its plants in four Southeast Asian nations to rise
to 36 billion yen in 1998 from 29 billion yen in 1997, with
further growth to 80 billion yen expected by 2000.

Koji Hasegawa, a Toyota director, said the value of exports to
Japan from its plants in the four countries -- Indonesia,
Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines -- was expected to rise to
about 10 billion yen in 1998 and 14 billion yen in 2000 from 2.5
billion yen in 1997.

Hasegawa said Toyota had already completed its latest round of
capital spending in the region before a financial crisis erupted
in the summer of 1997.

Those investments were based on Toyota estimates, calculated
prior to the crisis, that Southeast Asia's car demand would reach
two million units per year by 2000.

With capacity in the region now in surplus, Hasegawa said
Toyota was looking for ways to boost exports to other parts of
the world.