Japan's Isuzu plans China, India truck plants

Skooter reporting 08/14/12

Japan's Isuzu Motors will build new factories in China and India spending 30 billion yen ($382 million) to meet rising demand for pickup trucks in the fast-growing markets, a report said on Tuesday.

The reported new plants will together turn out about 200,000 trucks a year, increasing Isuzu's annual pickup capacity by about 50 percent to 600,000 by 2015, the Nikkei business daily reported.

Isuzu and China’s local automaker Jiangling Motors Group will build a factory in the southeastern city of Nanchang, the Nikkei report said. The new plant is expected to generate 100,000 vehicles yearly, it added.

In India, Isuzu planned to set up factory near the southern Indian city of Chennai will also turn out about 100,000 pickups a year, it added. No comment from Isuzu yet received on the report.

The said factories are aimed to expand its production base after the auto company’s facilities in Thailand were struck by massive flooding last year, the report said.

The massive flooding upset the supply chains of many Japanese and other foreign firms with plants in the Southeast Asian country. The demand for pickup trucks has been mounting in many emerging nations, simply because due to poor road conditions.

AFP