FRANKFURT (Reuters) - BMW's BMWG.DE said it is producing between 10,000 and 20,000 X5 sports utility vehicles in Thailand as a way to supply Chinese customers now that imported vehicles from the United States face a 40 percent tariff.

In spring 2016, BMW started building the X5 in Thailand and this plant is now capable of making a “significant portion” of the vehicles that would otherwise have been exported from its plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina to China.

“This is one action to counteract,” Chief Executive Harald Krueger told analysts in a call to discuss the company’s second-quarter results.