WOOD COUNTY, W.Va. — The president of the Wood County Commission said he was hopeful production would again be up and running for Hino Motors Manufacturing U.S.A. at the company’s Mineral Wells plant by this time next year.
Right before Christmas, Hino announced plans to formally pause Hino production in both Mineral Wells, located off Interstate 77, and at Hino Motors Canada in Woodstock, Canada through the end of Sept. 2021.
David Blair Couch, the president of the Wood County Commission, said he and other Wood County officials learned about the plans last week at the same time as everyone else.
“We know that they have limited production in the last five or six months. We had hoped that 2021 would bring them back up to speed and they would start producing trucks,” Couch said.
Production suspensions in 2020 were attributed to declines in demand for Hino’s trucks during the coronavirus pandemic.
Company officials said the production halt for the first nine months of 2021 was due to “challenges in the required U.S. engine certification testing process” specifically for new model years of A09C, J08E and J05E engines in North America.
New model year vehicle sales in both the U.S. and Canada were also postponed.
“Hino is currently investigating the impact of the production pause on its earnings and will disclose any updates as appropriate in a timely manner,” information from the company indicated.
No other details were immediately available.
“We know Hino is a great company and, for whatever reason they’ve had to do this, we hope they get their issues resolved very quickly,” Couch said.
Hino officials said vehicle production and sales of vehicles with new model year engines were expected to resume in both the United States and Canada by October 2021.
During Fiscal Year 2020, Hino sold about 8,000 vehicles in North America, compared with 17,100 during Fiscal Year 2019, according to company information.
Global vehicle sales in Fiscal Year 2020 were at about 143,000. In Fiscal Year 2019, the total sales numbers were 180,302.
Hino is the commercial truck division of Toyota Motors and first located in West Virginia in Williamstown in 2007.
Last year, production of Hino’s medium-duty trucks moved from Williamstown to the former Coldwater Creek distribution facility in Mineral Wells.
“They’ve invested heavily. I don’t think they’re going to be willing to walk away from what could be a $50 million to $100 million investment,” Couch said of Hino’s long-term prospects in West Virginia.
At times, the facility has employed between 200 and 500 people.
“Our hope is that they understand their workforce development, that they want to keep them and they’ll probably get back to work as quick as they can,” Commissioner Couch said.
“I’m cautiously optimistic and, hopefully, whatever issues they have will get resolved quickly.”