(Insider Stories) - Japan's Daihatsu Motor Co., Ltd. will extend its production line for passenger car engines at its Astra Daihatsu Motor (hereafter, “ADM”), subsidiary in Indonesia, a key overseas business location. The new production line will have an annual production capacity of 200,000 engines. The extended line is scheduled to run from the summer of 2015. 

For the purposes of increasing the cost competitiveness of the engines and continuously improving their quality, engine production will be shifted in stages from the existing line to the new line. The total production capacity will not change from the current level. Production capacity estimate 530,000 engines

Astra Daihatsu Founded January 1992 and own by Daihatsu Motor Co., Ltd. 61.75%, Astra International: 31.87% and Toyota Tsusho Corporation: 6.38%.

Meanwhile, Hino Motors Ltd, part of the Toyota group, is to establish its first manufacturing facility in Malaysia. The Hino Motors Manufacturing (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd plant will be based at a 170,000ft2 site in the Sendayan Tech Valley; it will be the company’s third-largest in South East Asia, after Thailand and Indonesia. 

Hino Motors president Yasuhiko Ichihashi (pictured) said the plant will produce about 10,000 light-, medium- and heavy-duty trucks and buses per year. “Malaysia is fast becoming one of the most important growth markets for Hino,” he said. “In the past three years, we have seen rising demand from customers in Malaysia who value the renowned quality, durability and reliability of our products.”

The plant — a joint venture between Hino Motors and long-time partner MBM Resources Bhd — will be operational by the first quarter of next year. It will mean the end of Hino’s association with Assembly Services Sdn Bhd, which had been working for the Japanese company since 1984.