Bimantara, Hyundai join in car assembling plant

JAKARTA (JP): PT Citra Mobil Nasional, a subsidiary of the well-diversified Bimantara Group, will establish a 200-hectare car assembling plant in Cikampek of West Java in cooperation with Hyundai Motor Company of South Korea.

Citra Mobil's president, Jongkie D. Sugiarto, told journalists after reporting to President Soeharto here yesterday that Hyundai Motor and a number of its vendors had confirmed to build assembling facilities there.

However, Jongkie did not give details of the project, saying only that his company was still working on the project's feasibility study.

At yesterday's meeting with Soeharto at Merdeka Palace, Jongkie was accompanied by the President's second son Bambang Trihatmodjo, who is also chief commissioner of the Bimantara Group, and Chung C. Young, chairman of the Hyundai Business Group.

Citra Mobil presented two Hyundai Elantra sedans with 1500 cc engines as well as 10 DOHC multi-point injection engines to President Soeharto for his foundations to mark the launching of the company's first product.

The company said in a statement that it assembled the Hyundai Elantra sedans at its assembling facilities in Bekasi, West Java, which it took over from PT Zastam.

Jongkie said Bimantara chose Hyundai as its partner in developing its automotive division because Hyundai had promised to transfer its automotive technology to Indonesia by increasing the local content of the products.

Concurring with Jongkie's argument, Chung said, "I think the level of local contents in Indonesia's automotive industry is too low. So, we want to help develop the industry, in this case, by building an assembling plant here with a high degree of local contents. President Soeharto welcomes this idea."

The presence of Hyundai sedans here will challenge the domination of Japan's cars in Indonesia's automotive market. Japan-affiliated assembling companies in Indonesia control almost 95 percent of the local automotive market.

Jongkie said his company plans to sell up to 1,500 Elantra sedans on the local market this year and another 3,000 next year.

Citra Mobil's marketing director, Poeng W.I. Lubis, said his company had established car service outlets in a number of big cities, including Bandung of West Java, Surabaya of East Java, Denpasar of Bali, Bandar Lampung of Lampung and Medan of North Sumatra. For Jakarta alone, Poeng said, the company has provided 15 car service points in different places and spare parts in 22 outlets. (rid)