Hino Motors is still feeling the effects of the recession but company executives said on April 19 that the addition of a $20 million truck frame rail line to its factory in Marion will help it build U.S. market share.
The company will add 25 jobs once the line is up to speed with equipment coming from a Hino Motors Manufacturing USA Inc. plant that closed in Long Beach, Calif., in 2008. In the interim, Hino has been using frame rail from Japan in its medium- and light-duty trucks.
The Marion parts plant has about 440 workers, though plant manager Kevin Ohneck said some of those employees work only when the factory has enough orders. The plant makes rear axle assemblies for Toyota Tundra pickups plus suspension components and other parts for the Tundra and the Toyota Sequoia SUV.
The frame rail line includes a series of machines that form 600-pound steel plates that are up to 36 feet long. One machine bends up the sides lengthwise, another takes out any bows or other deformities. A laser drills up to 246 holes so the rest of the vehicle can be fixed to the frame. Machines blast the rails smooth then paint and bake them. The pieces, formed from metal supplied by U.S. Steel, are hoisted by heavy-duty straps and moved by overhead conveyors.
The finished rails are trucked to Williamston, W.Va., where all Hino trucks to be sold in the U.S. are assembled, and to a plant in Ontario, Canada.
"As the economy gets better, we hope we will be able to ship more (frame rails) and run a second shift," Ohneck said. The lines that make the Tundra and Sequoia parts have been running two shifts, he said.
Arkansas officials spent years lobbying Toyota Motor Corp., Hino and other vehicle makers to use the site in Marion for a vehicle assembly plant. Other auto parts makers have opened in the Mississippi Delta area of Arkansas. But Marion was passed over for Toyota's Tundra assembly plant, which went to San Antonio, and Toyota named Tupelo, Miss., as the site for an SUV plant, though it is on hold because of the slow economy.
Hino Senior Vice President for Sales Robert E. McDowell said restarting frame rail production will help Hino move toward having 50% of each truck assembled from American-made parts. That will help build sales in cities and states that require a certain percentage of vehicle parts to be made in the U.S., he said.
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