Domestic car sales up slightly in March

JAKARTA (JP): Domestic sales of four-wheeled vehicles rose 3.5 percent in March to 3,448 units from 3,332 units the previous month, according to the latest report issued by the Association of Indonesian Automotive Industries.

March sales of passenger cars rose to 438 units from 323 in February, while commercial car sales increased to 3,101 units from 3,009 in February.

In March, local car makers exported 2,042 units, down from 2,050 units in February, bringing the total number of cars sold both locally and overseas to 5,490 units.

This figure was 11 percent lower than the 6,181 units sold in March last year, the report said.

The country's largest automaker, PT Astra International, sold 1,770 vehicles locally in March, or 58 percent of total domestic vehicle sales for the month. It sold 1,651 commercial cars and 119 passenger cars during the month.

Cars sold by Astra include Toyota, Daihatsu and Isuzu from Japan, Germany's BMW and France's Peugeot.

The company also exported 2,003 vehicles in March.

Toyota sold 837 commercial vehicles in March, the biggest proportion of any of the vehicle manufacturers. It was followed by Mitsubishi with 597 vehicles and Isuzu with 558 vehicles.

Astra and the country's second largest vehicle manufacturer, PT Indomobil Sukses Makmur, have halted production due to the slump in domestic demand.

Despite the slight increase in car sales in March, analysts believe sales will remain low as lingering fears over the country's political situation ahead of the June 7 general election will drag down automotive sales in the coming months.

"Sales started picking up in February and March, but they will plunge again approaching the campaign period and the general election," an analyst said.

"Many people will put off purchasing a vehicle, waiting until the political events are over and until certainty in both the country's political and social condition returns."

Analysts predicted Indonesia's automotive sales would decline to between 40,000 cars and 50,000 cars this year from 58,000 cars last year because demand remained low.

During the first three months of this year, local car sales reached 8,676 units, comprising 1,054 passenger cars and 7,622 commercial cars.

Data shows that Honda ranked first in the sale of passengers cars in the first three months of this year, taking over the title held by the Timor "national car", which ranked first in the sale of passenger cars in 1998.

Honda sold 234 vehicles during the first three months of the year, followed by Toyota with 190 vehicles, Mitsubishi with 140 cars and Timor with 106 cars.

The Timor sedans were imported from South Korea's Kia Motors by PT Timor Putra Nasional, controlled by former president Soeharto's youngest son, Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, under a controversial national car program.

During the first three months of this year, Toyota led the sales of commercial cars with 2,293 cars sold, followed by Isuzu with 1,228 cars.

The data also showed motorcycle sales climbed 21 percent to 32,035 units in March from 26,321 units the previous month.

In the period from January to March, 72,569 motorcycles were sold, the report said.

Indonesia is suffering through its worst ever economic crisis, with the rupiah losing more than 70 percent of its value against the US dollar since July last year.

The sharp depreciation of the rupiah's value has caused the price of cars to soar while the purchasing power of most Indonesians has weakened, resulted in sluggish car sales. (gis)