Car sales increase in October, above target, says Gaikindo

Sandy Darmosumarto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

As the holiday seasons approaches, national automobile sales in October of this year reached 35,996, a 16.2 percent rise from last year's October figure of 30,976. The number sold from January to October 2003 amounted to 304,549 units, a 12.2 percent rise over last year's figure for the same period of 271,433.

"Industry-wide sales this year are between 3 percent and 5 percent above GAIKINDO's (Indonesian Automotive Industry Association) start-of-year prediction," said Teddy Irawan, deputy director of national sales and promotion with Nissan Motor Indonesia. "Seen from perspective of the October data, sales have been increasing over the past couple of years."

"Our company hit a record of 10,343 sales, which is a 16.4 percent rise over last year's October figure of 8,883," said Hendrayadi Lastiyoso, marketing communications manager with Toyota-Astra Motor.

In October, Toyota held 28.7 percent of the national automobile market. Its closest competitors were Mitsubishi and Suzuki, with market shares of 21.2 and 19.5 percent respectively.

Toyota was also in first place during the January to October period, with total sales of 86,934 units, or 28.5 percent of the market.

In the passenger, or non-commercial, vehicle class, October saw total sales of 23,559 cars, a 20 percent increase compared to last year's figure. Toyota maintained its dominance in this market with a 37.2 percent market share, and total sales of 8,753 units.

Toyota is currently top in all sedan markets.

In the mini sedan market, Toyota holds 51.1 percent of the market, with total sales in October reaching 1,926 Vios and Soluna units. The Vios is far ahead of the Soluna with 40.5 percent of the market and 1,526 units sold.

The Corolla Altis dominated the small sedan class with 230 units sold in October, a market share of 49.8 percent, while the Camry ahead in the medium sedan market, with 182 units sold and a market share of 36 percent.

Moving away from the sedan markets, Toyota is still top in the medium non-commercial 4 x 2 market. It sold 6,366 Kijangs, which accounted for 56 percent of this particular market.

Sales in the commercial vehicle class in October 2003 amounted to 12,437 units, a 10.3 percent rise from last year's October figure of 11,278 units.

In response to the rise in overall industry sales, Hendrayadi expected that "sales will further increase at the end of the year."

Three factors would contribute to an end-of-year rise in sales. The first was companies using up their annual budgets; second, end-of-year bonuses; and third, Idul Fitri and Christmas bonuses.