Bimantara, Hyundai join in car assembling plant

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)