Jibuhin Bakrie opens new plant in W. Java
Jibuhin Bakrie opens new plant in W. Java
JAKARTA (JP): PT Bakrie & Brothers' joint venture PT Jibuhin
Bakrie Indonesia opened its US$29 million automotive-component
plant in Karawang, West Java, yesterday.
The plant, officially opened by Director General for Steel
Machine and Chemical Industries Effendi Sudarsono, will produce
power train components such as ring gears, yokes and rocker arm
and final drive assemblies.
PT Bakrie Tosanjaya, an automotive-component subsidiary of
Bakrie & Brothers, owns 40 percent of PT Jibuhin Bakrie and
Jidosha Buhin Kogyo of Japan owns 60 percent.
Jibuhin Bakrie will initially focus on making ring gear with
an annual capacity of 720,000 units. It expects to export 50
percent of these to Japan and sell the rest locally.
The company then plans to produce 250,000 yoke and rocker arm
assemblies yearly.
"We plan to double our automotive component capacity with an
additional investment of more than $20 million," Bakrie president
Tanri Abeng said after the opening.
The Bakrie & Brothers group plans to open an automobile plant
to produce multi-purpose vans.
Tanri said the heavily-protected automobile industry had been
slow to respond to the challenges and opportunities brought about
by globalization.
The government must support the local car-component industry
to reduce the country's dependence on imports, Tanri said.
Joint ventures with foreign manufacturers are the quickest and
most effective way to develop the domestic component industry, he
said.
Effendi said the country's automotive-component imports
increased to $3.04 billion in 1995 from $2.78 billion in 1994,
while its automotive-component exports rose to $139.7 million
from $93 million.
There are about 160 automotive-component manufacturers in the
country making at least 50 kinds of component ranging from power
trains to chassis and bodies, he said.
He predicted the value of the country's automotive-component
production would rise 22 percent to $1.42 billion this year from
$1.16 billion last year. (06)