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.