MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Toyota's first plant in Brazil shut down

The facilities had become obsolete since opening in 1962 and newer factories were preferred for current challenges

Japanese giant carmakers Toyota this week closed its São Bernardo plant, the company's oldest factory in Brazil which had been established in 1962. It was there that the Land Cruiser “Bandeirante” and the Corolla models were built in South America. Toyota's administrative headquarters for Brazil and South America also operated there for decades. It was said to be the company's first production facility outside Japan.

However, in the last few years, the facilities became obsolete as only spare parts were produced there, leaving the bulk of the work up to newer factories in Sorocaba (where the Yaris and Corolla Cross are made) and Indaiatuba (Corolla Sedan). The Japanese brand also has an engine plant in Porto Feliz.

São Bernardo's 550 workers were given the choice between a “voluntary retirement” (severance payment) and “relocation” to one of the other three plants in Brazil.

The end of operations in São Bernardo was announced by the company's global president, Akio Toyoda, in a video documentary, where the history of the “first Toyota factory to be installed outside Japan” was told.

The video reflects the story of the “Bandeirante” model and also of the legendary Komatsu stamping machine: a 1934 press that stamped car bodies for three decades in Japan. It will now be sent to Japan to be displayed at a museum.