Automotive sales may fall to 50,000 vehicles
Automotive sales may fall to 50,000 vehicles
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's automotive sales may decline further
to 50,000 cars this year from 58,000 cars last year, as demand
remains low in the crisis-hit country, a noted automotive company
executive has said.
Herman Z. Latief, the president of PT Krama Yudha Tiga Berlian
Motors, said on Monday the car market would remain depressed
despite expected improvement in the country's economy in the
second half of 1999.
"The country's economic crisis and political instability are
the main contributors to the further fall in automotive vehicle
sales," he said at a launch of the Mitsubishi Kuda family van.
"It is possible that the country's automotive market is the
worst affected in the region by the crisis," he said.
Prior to the crisis, Latief said the country's automotive
market had shown impressive growth, with annual sales of 400,000
vehicles of various makes.
Sales dropped to 58,000 units in 1998 as the economic crisis,
which began in the middle of 1997, became more severe and the
country's political situation became tenuous following the
downfall of former president Soeharto.
"If the prediction comes true, Indonesia will, for the first
time in the country's automotive history, record lower sales than
Singapore, which records 60,000 units annually," Latief said.
He said the Indonesia situation differed from automotive
markets in other Asian countries, in which there was a tendency
for the market to follow a country's economic recovery.
Latief said he was still optimistic about the long-term
outlook for the country's automotive market, citing Indonesia's
vast territory and large population.
He said Krama Yudha launched the multipurpose family van
Mitsubishi Kuda, to show its commitment to the domestic market,
despite the economic crisis.
The company's principal, Mitsubishi Motors in Japan, has
developed the car in three countries -- Taiwan, Indonesia and the
Philippines -- under the "complementation parts" scheme for
efficiency.
The Kuda car has 40 percent local content and 60 percent
imported content.
Off-road prices are Rp 110 million (US$12,200) for the Super
Exceed type, Rp 105 million for the GLS type, and Rp 92 million
for the GLX type. (jsk)