National Timor cars dominate domestic auto market

JAKARTA (JP): Domestic vehicles sales totaled 29,830 last month, up 4.1 percent from the 28,645 sold in the same month last year, with "national" Timor cars topping the list for passenger cars.

A statement issued by national car assembler PT Astra International last week reported that Timor, the sole benefactor of duty and tax breaks granted by the government, sold 1,680 cars last month.

Although Timor topped the list, it failed to meet the target of 4,000 cars a month announced by Timor's distributing company, PT Timor Distributor Nasional last month.

TDN executives claimed that Timor had continued to grab more than 25 percent of the sedan market since it went on sale in October.

The Timor sedans, manufactured by Timor Putra in conjunction with South Korea's Kia Motors Corp., were granted a series of import duty and luxury tax breaks by the government under the national car policy announced last February.

Timor Putra, controlled by President Soeharto's youngest son Hutomo Mandala Putra, currently imports completely built units of Kia's Sephia sedans because it does not yet have a manufacturing plant of its own.

In second place after Timor are Honda, with 964 cars sold, and Suzuki, with 640. None of the above three brands are assembled by Astra.

The statement said that Astra's total sales, including exports, were 14,185 vehicles last month, down 7.1 percent from 15,277 in the corresponding month last year.

Astra's total sales made up 47.1 percent of Indonesia's total commercial and passenger vehicle sales in January.

Astra's total exports were 276 vehicles in January, compared with 233 last year, while its total domestic sales were 13,909 vehicles, compared to 15,044 last year.

Astra managed to sell 6,127 Toyota commercial vehicles last month, down from 6,751 in the corresponding month of 1996. Its sales of Daihatsu commercial cars dropped by 28 percent to 2,455 last month from 3,416 in the same month last year.

Astra's Toyota passenger cars sales dropped 43 percent to 634 from 1,103 and its sales of Daihatsus declined to only three cars from 21.

Its Peugeot sales increased by 97 percent to 118 cars from 60.

Astra's sold 66,663 motorbikes last month, up from 48,906 last year.

It is estimated 325,000 vehicles were sold last year. (pwn)