TOKYO, June 3 (Reuters) - Troubled Japanese truck maker Isuzu Motors Ltd and partner trading company, Mitsubishi Corp , said on Monday they had formed a new joint venture in Thailand to reinforce the automaker's pick-up truck business.
Isuzu, which has embarked on a drastic restructuring programme amid slumping sales, is gradually shifting domestic production of pick-up trucks to Thailand to turn it into an export base for Australia and other overseas markets.
Capitalised at 2.0 billion yen ($16.10 million), the new joint venture, Isuzu Operations (Thailand) Co, aims to help lift production to around 250,000 pick-up trucks a year by 2005 or 2006 compared with 147,000 at present, the two companies said.
Isuzu's longstanding business partner in Thailand, Mitsubishi Corp, put up 80 percent of the new sales unit's capitalisation, with the rest owned by Isuzu.
Isuzu, the weakest of Japan's four truck makers, has been hurt by a stagnant truck sale at home. It last month reported its third straight annual net loss for the year to March 2002.
All of Japan's four truck makers have been hit hard by weak domestic demand, although Isuzu, 49-percent-owned by General Motors Corp , was the only one to post a loss.
Shares in Isuzu have been battered in recent months on general worries that banks will cut off weak borrowers.
Isuzu's shares closed unchanged at 88 yen on Monday, while the Nikkei average edged 1.17 percent higher.