|
|
| |
| Fri, Nov. 21, 2008 |  |
 |
|
||
| | Arkansas lands another auto Japanese auto parts plant
Thursday, May 6, 2004 By Wesley Brown Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - Gov. Mike Huckabee, making good on a promise he made after a March trip to the Far East, announced Tuesday that another Japanese company plans to build a plant in eastern Arkansas to make parts for Toyota. Hino Motors Ltd., a Japanese truck manufacturer that makes medium- and large-size trucks and buses, will break ground on a new facility later this summer in the Delta community across the river from Memphis. "This is exciting news for our entire state," Huckabee said in a news release. The Japanese trucking giant had sales of more than $7 billion in fiscal 2003. Last week, Hino said it hopes to grab 10 percent of the mid-size truck market in the U.S. by 2010. Japan's biggest truck maker said it will target customers with low-emission engines and improved fuel economy. Hino expects U.S. diesel emission regulations to be more stringent than in Japan by 2007, giving the company a chance to expand sales by offering fuel-efficient trucks that are reliable and easy to maintain, Hino President Tadaaki Jagawa said. Currently, Hino only exports 2,000 trucks to the U.S. per year, but the company recently announced it will begin production of its new truck line in November at its Long Beach, Calif., facility. Hino Trucks will introduce its new vehicles as model year 2005 units ready for delivery starting in January 2005. Neither Huckabee's office nor state economic development officials offered any details of Hino's Arkansas investment or how many employees the company eventually will hire. Like three other Japanese auto parts companies that have found their way to the recession-wracked Delta region over the past year, Hino is closely linked to Toyota Motor Corp. Hino became a subsidiary of Toyota in August 2001, when the world's second-largest auto manufacturer bought a 51 percent stake in its Japanese sister company. Hino's other U.S. facilities are in Long Beach and Orangeburg, N.Y., in close proximity to Toyota auto plants. More than a year ago, Toyota spurned a 1,400-acre industrial site in Marion for its $800 million truck plant that went to San Antonio, Texas. However, Huckabee and former state Department of Economic Development Director Jim Pickens said the state eventually would benefit from its relations with the world's fastest-growing automaker. Since then, Arkansas has moved closer to becoming the auto parts king of the South by landing four different manufacturing companies with Toyota ties. Larry Walther, director of the Arkansas Department of Economic Development, said the Huckabee administration has worked hard over several years to develop successful business relationships with Japanese companies. "(We) are confident that their selection of Arkansas will be good both for the company and for our state," said Walther, who made a business trip with Huckabee to Japan and Taiwan earlier this year. Just two weeks ago, Walther and Huckabee helped Systex Products Corp. announce that it will build a manufacturing facility in Osceola. Systex, a joint venture with Japan-based companies Shimizu Industry Co. and Inoac Corp. and Cascade Engineering USA of Michigan, said it will invest $12.5 million in its Arkansas operations by 2006. At full production during the first quarter of 2005, Systex Arkansas Products will hire 25 people and add 15 more later. The new Arkansas facility will be located right across the street from Denso Corp., the Japanese auto parts company that is building a 217,000-square-foot facility that is scheduled to begin production later this year. In July, Denso announced it will locate a new $35 million auto parts manufacturing plant in Osceola. Denso, one of Toyota's primary auto suppliers, will employ some 500 workers when it reaches full production by 2008, officials said. Besides the Denso and Systex plants, Japan-based Sakae Riken Kogyo Co. Ltd. is building a $15 million manufacturing facility on a 40-acre site south of Wynne, about one hour south of Osceola. Construction on the 91,000-square-foot plant - called Eakas Arkansas - began earlier this year. The facility will be capable of producing 320,000 door handles a month and 60,000 mirrors, plus other interior and exterior parts for automakers, including Toyota. Eakas Arkansas will start production by March 2005 with an estimated 75 employees. It anticipates an eventual work force of 250. There has been speculation in the auto industry recently that Toyota is planning to build another U.S. facility, although company officials have been silent about such plans. Also, both Huckabee and Walther have recently made public comments that Arkansas, the only southern state without an auto manufacturing facility, will land one in the near future. However, the federal Environmental Protection Agency recently found that Crittenden County failed to comply with new ozone standards because of pollution in Memphis. Toyota officials say that the Japanese automaker has never built a manufacturing facility in a region that exceeded federal air quality standards. State congressional officials have promised to fight the EPA ruling. |
