Nissan, Salim Group set up car venture
Nissan, Salim Group set up car venture
TOKYO (AFP): Japan's Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. announced Tuesday plans to set up a 3.4-billion-yen (US$40 million) car assembly venture in Indonesia with local group Salim and Japanese trading house Marubeni Corp.
The new company, based in western Java, will be the Japanese carmaker's first affiliate in Indonesia, producing Nissan, Chrysler, Volkswagen and Volvo vehicles on a knockdown basis from July next year, a statement said.
Nissan said the new plant, to be built on a 12-hectare (30- acre) site at Bukit Indah east of Jakarta, would join its mutual parts supply system in other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Production capacity is estimated at 12,000 units a year, of which 8,000 will be various Nissan models including the Pathfinder multi-purpose vehicle. The remaining 4,000 units will cover various Chrysler, Volkswagen and Volvo models.
Nissan will hold 35 percent of the new company, to be known as PT Ismac Nissan Manufacturing and initially capitalized at 1.7 billion yen. The Salim group's Indomobil will hold 55 percent and Marubeni 10 percent.
Japan's second-biggest carmaker has until now contracted its Indonesian vehicle assembly to PT Ismac, a unit of Indomobil.
But Ismac, which also assembles for other carmakers, has reached the upper limit of its production capacity of 7,200 units a year and will close its existing plant and cease operations once the new venture starts.
The Japanese carmaker said vehicle demand in Indonesia was expected to jump from 320,000 units last year to 500,000 units in 2000, supported by the country's high rate of growth and its population of 190 million people.
"With the construction of this new plant, Nissan aims to strengthen the foundations of its business operations in the Indonesian market.
"In addition, it will give Nissan a production base in every major ASEAN market, and is expected to further expand the company's system of mutual parts supply among its production centers under the brand-to-brand complementation scheme in effect in the ASEAN region," the statement said.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.