The domestic Japanese truck market is on its uppers, and the Japanese OEMs have a pressing need to start developing new revenue streams; witness the notable market grabs going on in both Europe and the Middle East. Last year, Hino sold a les than stellar 272 trucks in Mexico, and this year, it hopes to quadruple that figure. It needs to; during Q2 2008, it saw its domestic sales slide by 5.6 per cent.

What we find intriguing about this announcement though is quite where it leaves the Hino operations both in Arkansas and West Virginia. This news story from a while back suggested that it would be building trucks in the former as of 2007, but, as of today, it isn't. Earlier this year, it shifted truck production from its other US plant in Ontario, California to West Virginia, and the Arkansas plant is now being idled.

We had always assumed that this was a facility that the Japanese giant had established with a view to growing into it as market conditions prevailed. Whilst the Mexican plant has a stated capacity of just 1200 units per year, we can't help but wonder if this number might not just be increased in the coming months. If ever there was a sleeping giant in the global truck business, it is Hino, and its stated aim of US sales of 20,000 units per year sits comfortably with its potential. Where those 20,000 trucks get built is a very different matter.