Aisin to Build Car-Parts Plant in Northern Japan, Nikkei Says

By Stuart Biggs

Sept. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Aisin Seiki Co., a Japanese auto- parts maker affiliated with Toyota Motor Corp., will open an engine components factory in Japan's northeast Tohoku region as early as next year, the Nikkei newspaper reported.

Aisin will spend about 10 billion yen ($93 million) on the factory to supply cast-metal engine parts to Toyota factories in eastern Japan, the Nikkei reported today, without saying where it obtained the information. Toyota will build an auto assembly plant in the region in 2010, the newspaper said.

The Aisin group already has a production base in the Tohoku region for electronic and plastic auto parts, the report said. The newspaper said the new factory will have capacity for ``tens of thousands of tons'' of cast-metal parts.

To contact the reporter on this story: Stuart Biggs in Tokyo at sbiggs3@bloomberg.net.