Astra aims to export 1,370 new Kijang vans
JAKARTA (JP): PT Toyota Astra Motor, a subsidiary of Indonesia's largest automaker PT Astra International, expects to export 1,370 units of its new Kijang van this year.
The company announced yesterday the vans would be exported to Brunei Darussalam, Papua New Guinea and the South Pacific Islands.
"We'll soon export the new Kijang van to Brunei. The launching will mark our first export of the new Kijang version," the announcement said. The demand for new vans in Brunei is between 130 and 175 units a month.
The publicly listed PT Astra International launched the new model Kijang van in January with 45.80 percent local content.
The new Kijang van is available in 20 different models with a range of body styles, engines and transmissions. It's off the road price ranges from Rp 27.05 million to Rp 43.4 million (about US$18,000).
The president of Toyota Astra Motor, Rudyanto Hardjanto, said his company spent about $70 million over four years developing the new model.
He said by 1999 the van's local content would be 60 percent.
The company said that up to March it had made more than 16,000 new vans, while it had orders for 19,632 vans.
The company will increase monthly production to 7,000 units this month, and to 7,800 in May to cope with growing demand.
Rudyanto said 75,000 vans would be made this year.
According to PT Astra International, from 1986 to 1996 the firm exported 5,541 old model of Kijang vans to Brunei, 489 Kijang pickups to Papua New Guinea and 283 old model Kijang vans and pickups to Fiji, Salomon and Tonga.
To strengthen its foothold in the local market, Astra International's president, Theodore P Rachmat, recently announced plans to make a 1500cc sedan by 1998, in a joint venture with its Japanese principal, Toyota Corporation.
PT Astra would control 51 percent of the venture, he said.
Based on its unaudited financial report, PT Astra, which has 55 percent of the domestic car market with its leading brands Toyota, Daihatsu, Isuzu, BMW, Peugeot and Nissan, booked a Rp 450 billion net profit last year on revenue of Rp 12 trillion. (bnt)