Leading truck maker Hino Motors Ltd. plunged into red ink in the first half of the current fiscal year, with sales decreasing mainly due to the Asian economic crisis and the prolonged recession in Japan, the company said on Tuesday.Unconsolidated net losses for the April-September period were reported at 21.4 billion yen. The company posted 2.8 billion yen in midterm net profits in the previous business year. Net sales dropped 24.1 percent to 223 billion yen.The company exported 6,903 units, mainly to Southeast Asian countries, a 54.9 percent decrease from the April-September period of the previous year, the company said. The company's sales of diesel vehicles dropped 50 percent in the domestic and overseas markets in total, to 19,258 units, Hino Motors said.
