Toyota Motor Corp's unit in Argentina has been targeting new markets in South and Central America to keep production up as demand for cars from recession-ridden Brazil plummets, a company executive told Reuters on Tuesday.
Steve St Angelo, Toyota's chief executive officer for Latin America and the Caribbean, said the strategy of reducing its reliance on Brazil has enabled the company to keep production at its Argentine plant steady at about 115,000 units per year.
"We used to export only to Brazil and Paraguay. That was too risky because when Brazil went down, the volume in Argentina went down," St. Angelo said in an interview during the government-organized Argentina Business & Investment Forum.
"We are able to now export to all South America and all Central America," St. Angelo said.
Argentina's automaking industry sends nearly 70 percent of its production to regional powerhouse Brazil, where a two-year-old recession, crippling unemployment and high interest rates have weighed on household spending.
Car production in Argentina has dropped 13 percent so far this year from the same period in 2015, tracking a 30.5 percent drop in exports.
Toyota has been expanding the capacity of its plant in the province of Buenos Aires to 140,000 units from 92,000 units, thanks to a $800 million investment, St. Angelo said. The factory makes Toyota and Prius sedans and Hilux pickup trucks.