Hino likely to build truck plant in Ontario: Report

TORONTO — Toyota Motor Corp. is planning to open a Hino Motors medium-duty truck assembly plant in Ontario next year, according to a report in the Journal of Commerce.

Hino’s parent company hopes the plant will help the corporation double North American production and sales of medium-duty straight trucks to 10,000 vehicles a year by 2007.

The truckmaker also plans to build a new US assembly plant in Arkansas, according to the Journal. The company has a manufacturing plant in L.A. and in April, Hino cut the ribbon on a new Southaven, Miss. national parts distribution centre.

A Canadian plant would improve sales
and delivery: Hino Canada VP

According to the report, Hino execs wouldn’t say where in the province the plant would be built.

The company has been trying to expand its brand and strengthen its dealer network in the US for years. Hino already enjoys a decent slice of Canadian market share — especially in the niche straight truck market in Quebec. To date, Hino has sold about 1,500 class 5-7 trucks in Canada.

However, Axel Breuer, the newly-appointed vice-president of Hino Canada in Mississauga, Ont., could not confirm the news of the new plant. He told TodaysTrucking.com this afternoon that Toyota is “still considering its options” — including locations in the Northeast US and in Quebec. “There’s no guarantee it’ll be located (in Ontario).

He did acknowledge that a plant in Canada would be a big boost for Canadian dealers. “If anything it’ll improve the time between the time of order to the time of delivery,” he said. “It does improve the opportunity to make sales. Sometimes a sale can’t be made if the buyer has to wait several months.”

— with files from the Journal of Commerce