New vehicle sales down 37 percent

New vehicle sales down 37 percent

Dow Jones, Jakarta

New vehicle sales in Indonesia dropped 37 percent to 17,982 units in December from November, mainly due to lower demand for commercial vehicles, Gaikindo, the car assemblers' association, said Friday.

New vehicle sales for the whole of 2002 totaled 317,794 units, up 6 percent from 2001, but new vehicle sales this year is expected to be flat due to the weakening purchasing power in Indonesia, Gaikindo said.

Sales of commercial vehicles reached 16,857 units in December, down 35 percent from November while sales of passenger cars, a barometer of consumer confidence, dropped 56 percent to 1,125 units, Gaikindo said.

Gaikindo didn't explain the sharp fall in December's new motor sales.

The country's biggest motor maker PT Astra International, which has a joint venture with Toyota Motor Corp. to assemble and distribute Toyota's vehicles in Indonesia, posted a 44 percent drop in sales to 6,479 units in December, Gaikindo said.

PT Astra's new vehicle sales in the domestic market totaled 135,773 units last year, with exports at 40,979 units.

Astra had a 43 percent share of Indonesia's new vehicle market last year.