Toyota will consolidate its truck production operations at its Hino Motors unit by the end of next year in an effort to reduce costs and promote specialisation within its group to better compete in the tough domestic small truck market, Dow Jones reported.
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The news agency said competition in the small truck market in Japan has heated up as manufacturers that primarily make passenger cars have branched out to try and gain a slice of the shrinking truck market.
Dow Jones said the Toyota group currently manufactures 0.75- to 2.0-ton trucks under the Toyota brand four group company plants – the parent, Hino and Toyota Auto Body Co.
According to the report, Toyota said on Wednesday it will integrate these operations into Hino, which specialises in making trucks.
Dow Jones noted that Toyota has consigned most production of its Dyna and Toyoace small truck models to Hino since 1999, outsourcing some 20,000 trucks from Hino in 2002.
Dow Jones noted that the Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper reported that the Toyota group will integrate its truck development operations into Hino, but a Toyota spokesman denied that was being planned.
