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Wall Street Journal story like the 'Boy Who Cried Wolf' fable Saturday, Nov 5, 2005 By Wesley Brown Over the next few weeks, the state will be eagerly awaiting an announcement from Hino Motors Ltd. on the possibility that a new truck assembly plant is coming to eastern Arkansas. Since the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Hino Motors will open a second U.S. assembly plant in Crittenden County by 2007 to build medium-duty trucks, state officials and economic developers have been mum about this possible November surprise. Of course, the fact that the development was reported by the venerable Wall Street Journal has caught the attention of many, including the media. But there are other issues that need to be addressed: First, the news seemed to have caught the governor's office and the state Department of Economic Development off guard, and secondly, the article was written by a reporter who has written erroneous front page stories in the past about Arkansas' long-running chase to land an auto assembly plant. After the story appeared on the Journal's Web site, Gov. Huckabee, the governor's press liaison and ADED officials have steadfastly refused to talk about any possibility of a super project coming to Marion, where Hino is already building a $160 million, 400,000 square-foot truck parts plant. Until Hino makes an official announcement, then we can't talk about any possible negotiations, they have said. Hino workers at the sprawling Marion facility, which is on schedule to open as expected in the fall of 2006, will build rear-axle and suspension-related parts for 300,000 Tundra trucks a year once production begins. Of course, Hino's Marion facility is located near the state's prized 2,100-acre industrial site, which lost out in the state's 2003 bid to win the $800 million Toyota Tundra plant that went to San Antonio. According to the Journal story, the person who trumpeted the news that Hino plans to put a new truck assembly plant in Crittenden County was Hino Chairman Tadaaki Jagawa himself, not an unnamed source or some lower level executive. Hino, Jagawa said, aims to sell 10,000 medium-duty trucks in the U.S. by 2007 as the Tokyo-based truck maker beefs up its dealer network, the Journal reported. Hino would build 3,000 to 4,000 trucks a year with an eye toward expanding the plant further, the Journal quoted Jagawa saying. The additional capacity is needed because Hino's lone North American factory in Long Beach, Calif., can only produce a maximum of 6,000 vehicles a year. Jagawa made similar comments in July of last year during Hino's groundbreaking ceremony in Marion. The Hino exec said then, with Huckabee standing at his side, that the company will switch most of its truck parts production from California to the Marion site when the Arkansas plant opens in 2006. That leaves this question: If the chairman of Hino is saying that the company plans to build a factory in Arkansas and has always said that the Arkansas plant is available to expand, then why is it necessary to send out a press release from Hino to tell the good folk of the downtrodden Delta about much-needed factory jobs? And then there is the fact that Journal reporter Norihiko Shirouzu, who wrote Wednesday's story, also reported in February that Toyota was eyeing two sites for its seventh assembly in North America. That story, citing an unnamed senior company executives, reported that Toyota was looking at a site in Ontario, Canada, and another location in western Arkansas, in an area near Memphis. Of course, if you look at an Arkansas/Tennessee map, Memphis is nowhere near western Arkansas. It is also common knowledge that the state's prized 2,100-acre super project industrial site is in eastern Arkansas, just across the river from Memphis. At the time the story was written, Shirouzu was contacted about the error but refused to print a correction. In the meantime, Toyota eventually selected Canada as the location of that $650 million plant, where the Japanese auto giant will begin yearly production of 100,000 small SUVs in 2008. The problem with all this super project talk is similar to Aesop's fable of The Boy Who Cried Wolf. Many stories have been written about the big bad auto plant with high-paying jobs that are coming to the state, but every time the townspeople run out to meet the automaker he never shows up. On the day that Arkansas finally removes the stigma of being the only southern state without an auto plant, many people still won't be convinced until the shovel is actually in the dirt. ------ Wesley Brown is business editor for the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock. His e-mail address is wbrown@arkansasnews.com. |
