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Toyota likely to pick Marion, industry journalist says Saturday, Jan 27, 2007 By Jason Wiest Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - Toyota chose the site for an automobile manufacturing plant "quite a while ago" and Marion is the likely pick, the publisher of a business magazine said Friday. "We believe ... that Marion will be the site and we think that Hino will operate a truck line at that plant - that it will be a Toyota and Hino facility," said Michael Randle, editor and publisher of Southern Business and Development magazine. Hino Motors, a Toyota subsidiary, already has a parts manufacturing plant adjacent to the Marion site. The Arkansas Department of Economic Development said Friday only that the Marion site is still being aggressively marketed, preparations are being made for a possible plant and that the future looks bright. "We are confident one day we will be producing automobiles in Arkansas," the agency said in a release. The Wall Street Journal reported Jan. 4 that Toyota's prospective sites were Marion, Chattanooga and Alamo, Tenn., and a site in Davidson County, N.C. Randle predicted an announcement from Toyota would come within days and that Marion would be the choice. "We don't know for sure, but we've been pretty good at picking these in the past," said Randle, whose magazine accurately predicted five years ago that Toyota's Tundra pickup plant would locate in San Antonio. Marion was a finalist for the plant, but the magazine predicted in 2002 that the Arkansas site would be home to a future Toyota plant. Dan Sieger, spokesman for Toyota's North American manufacturing headquarters, said the company considering whether to expand production capabilities in North America but would not discuss what decision, if any, has been made. "We have been studying this and we have been looking at sites. However, as a matter of policy, we don't discuss where we are in the study, what sites we may be looking at or a timetable for a decision," Sieger said. Toyota was the nation's third-largest auto manufacturer last year, and sales continue to grow. Many auto industry analysts predict the Japanese automaker will need to build more U.S. manufacturing plants in the coming years. Toyota is searching for a mid-South location and also a location on the East Coast location, Randle said. Marion will be the mid-South pick, he said. "Well I sure hope he's right," said Kay Brockwell, economic development director for Marion. "I don't know anything, and if I did, I couldn't comment on it," she said. A manager of administration at Hino Motors manufacturing corporate headquarters said she had no information, nor access to any of Toyota's corporate plans. Arkansas is on of three Southern states that do not have auto manufacturing plants, along with North Carolina and Virginia. Nissan and Saturn both have plants near Nashville, Tenn., where Nissan also has its U.S. headquarters. The 1,750-acre site at Marion has access to two interstate highways, two rail lines and the Mississippi River, and is just minutes away from a major airport at Memphis, Tenn. In the past 14 months, five Eastern Arkansas community colleges have been awarded $11 million in grants to, among other things, prepare the area work force for automobile manufacturing jobs. |
