Hino Motors plant expanding in Wood County

19/07/2008 16:05. "Right now, we are building a truck every 42 minutes," Wager said, which means that workers complete 10 trucks during the 8 a.m. to 4:30 shift. The plant hopes to double that to 20 trucks per shift, he said.

In April, Hino Motors announced that it would stop production at the Toyota Auto Body Consortium plant in Long Beach, Calif., this month. At the time, they said some of the work would be shifted to Williamstown once demand increases.

The Long Beach plant produced 4,800 trucks during the fiscal year that ended in March. The Williamstown plant has the capacity to make 5,000 trucks annually.

The WVEDA has some investment in the 197,000-square-foot manufacturing facility, which opened in November 2007 and employs 80 people. Thursday's trip was part of the WVEDA board's... // Charleston Gazette