(RTTNews) -  Japanese carmaker Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. (NSANY.PK: News ) intends to to transfer production of its luxury Infiniti brand sport utility vehicle to a facility in Japan from the U.S. next year, the Nikkei reported Thursday. The production is being relocated to a state-of-the-art domestic facility, Fukuoka Prefecture-based Nissan Shatai Co.'s Kyushu plant.

The full-size Infiniti QX56 SUV production is the second model to make the production switch to Japan, as Nissan already relocated output of its Quest minivan to the Nissan Shatai plant from Mississippi.

The SUV model is currently being made at the Canton factory in the U.S. state of Mississippi, with some 5,000 units churned out in fiscal 2008. The company is considering using the U.S. factory to launch mass production of a small commercial vehicle that will debut next year, the report stated.

Pursuant to the shift, the Infiniti SUV production will be concentrated at two sites in Japan, at a facility in Tochigi Prefecture and at the Kyushu plant, on which construction work was completed this past spring.
By this shift in production, Nissan is looking to take advantage of the cutting-edge facilities in Japanese plants, with quality being lifted for the cars exported to overseas markets. However, the strengthening of the yen is a matter of concern for the company.

Nissan has also been juggling with its production sites across the world. Recently, it announced plans to shift the production of Micra compact car from UK to India and from Japan to Thailand. India and Thailand will be the markets from where it will source Micra from 2010. Nissan is scheduled to showcase its enhanced Micra in March of 2010 at the Geneva Motor show, plans to launch the same in India in May 2010.

NSANY.PK closed Thursday's regular trading session at $13.32, down $0.38 or 2.77% on a volume of 0.54 million shares, higher than the three-month average volume of 0.25 million shares.

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by RTT Staff Writer

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