W. Va. truck assembly plant opens
The first vehicle off Hino Motors Manufacturing USA. Inc.’s Williamstown plant was a white truck that already had competing purchase offers from the town of Williamstown and the Wood County Development Authority, said Joe Chronley, the plant’s general manager.
Hino, a subsidiary of Toyota Group, announced in June it would take over the former Walker Systems plant. Company officials said then that they would invest $8.6 million to renovate the building and hoped to have the plant open by mid-November.
Workers have already produced 25 light- and medium-duty trucks as part of their training. Those vehicles will be sold, as will the first official vehicles to roll off the assembly line on Monday, Chronley said.
The plant employs 72 and will start production with two trucks per day, he said. The goal is to increase that to 20 per day. The plant is operating one shift, Monday through Friday.
