Tostem to Close Housing Exterior Plant in Shiga

Tostem Corporation announced on Tuesday the firm stops exterior making operation at Mizuguchi plant in Shiga by end of February 2008 to start logistic base operation. The firm concentrates the exterior production in Maebashi and Kasukawa plants in Gunma as part of domestic production sites restructure and operation shift to offshore sites. The firm has domestic 30 plants and offshore 2 plants as of April 2008. Mizuguchi plant started operation in February 1992 to produce housing exterior lineup for inner use and Tokyo based Toyo Exterior as major production base in western Japan. Tostem shifts the production to Maebashi and Kasukawa to improve the efficiency from production to transportation and administration. Mizuguchi logistic center, which is next of Mizuguchi plant, keeps operation as major transportation base of housing exterior for western Japan. The employees of Mizuguchi plant will move to other plants around the area. Mizuguchi plant is subsidiary with 50 million yen of capital and 140 of employees. The plant has building with 11,983 square meters of floor space on 97,702 square meters of land including the logistic center. The plant produces gate, fence and carport.