Nissan to move part of NAmerican output to Japan - report.

(From AFX Europe (Focus))

TOKYO (XFN-ASIA) - Nissan Motor Co plans to move some of its manufacturing operations to Japan from North America because its domestic plants are better able to make a wide variety of car models in small quantities, The Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported.

The decision is somewhat unusual for a Japanese automaker as the industry has been expanding overseas production since the 1980s in an effort to defuse trade friction, the report said.

Yet with Toyota Motor Corp expanding domestic output, and Honda Motor Co and Suzuki Motor Corp each building a new plant in Japan, it is clear that the global strategies of Japanese automakers are being re-evaluated in light of the vast accumulation of technology by domestic factories and their greater flexibility in meeting sudden changes in demand, it said.

Production of two Nissan models is scheduled to be relocated from a US plant in Canton, Mississippi, in 2008 and 2009, with output of the Quest minivan moving to Nissan's Kyushu plant in Kanda-machi, Fukuoka Prefecture, ...