Car sales fell 82.4% in first semester of this year
Car sales fell 82.4% in first semester of this year
JAKARTA (JP): Car sales plunged 82.4 percent to 35,789 units
in the first half of this year, industry statistics published
yesterday revealed.
The data, provided by the country's largest carmaker PT Astra
International, showed that car sales for the first half of the
year were sharply lower than the 203,212 units sold during the
same period last year.
Astra sold 21,236 cars in the first half of the year, or 59.3
percent of the total.
Astra assembles cars carrying international brands including
Japan's Toyota, Daihatsu, Isuzu and Nissan, Germany's BMW and
France's Peugeot.
Astra and the country's other largest carmaker, PT Indomobil
Sukses Makmur, have halted production due to the slump in
domestic demand.
The Association of Indonesian Automotive Industries said last
week there were still 40,000 new cars in stock.
Astra's survey showed a zero sale for the Timor in May and
June. however, the "national car" company did sell 690 vehicles
in the first four months of 1998.
The Timor sedans have been imported from South Korea's Kia
Motors by PT Timor Putra Nasional, controlled by former president
Suharto's youngest son, Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, under a
controversial national car program.
Under the scheme, Tommy's company enjoyed import duty and
luxury tax exemptions. The tax and duty account for about 60
percent of a car's sale price in Indonesia.
The company was also allowed to import completely built-up
South Korean cars to be sold domestically as the national car
pending the completion of the firm's assembly line in Cikampek,
West Java in 1999.
All the tax facilities were cut following Soeharto's
resignation in May.
The statistics also said motorcycle sales fell 70 percent to
258,151 for the first half of the year from 858,353 in the same
period last year.
Motorcycle sales rose to 46,268 in June from 22,315 in May.
But the June figure is a year-on-year fall of 129,375 motorcycles
from last year. (jsk)