Opel to expand its range with Frontera and Sintra
By Russell Williamson
GENERAL Motors Buana Indonesia (GMBI) is to add two of its stars from the Jakarta Auto Expo to its model lineup, the small four-wheel drive Frontera and the minivan Sintra.
The president director of GMBI, William Botwick, said the two Opel vehicles were "very definitely" on the agenda for Indonesia, although timing for the introduction of the vehicles has yet to be decided.
William said that although General Motors (GM) had previously announced a delay on further investment in Indonesia, due to confusion surrounding the national car policy, the company still wanted to expand its operations and model range in Indonesia.
In June, the president of GM's Asia and Pacific operations, Donald Sullivan, said the company would keep its level of investment frozen until it got a clearer indication of the direction of Indonesia's car policy.
That direction, Sullivan said, would need to be one where all players in the market were on an even footing, with no one company being given any special concessions.
The issue of the tax concessions given to PT Timor Putra Nasional -- the company run by President Soeharto's son Hutomo Mandala Putra -- to develop the Timor national car, has now been referred to the World Trade Organization for "consultation" by the United States, Japan and the European Union.
However, although the situation remains unclear and unresolved, Botwick said GMBI was still very committed to the Indonesian market and would be making further investments.
"I can't tell you how much or when but we will be making additional investments in the near future," William said.
Part of this investment may be used to further expand capacity for the assembly of the Blazer sports utility following the announcement of significant export potential for the vehicle.
Earlier this month, at the third anniversary of the establishment of GMBI, Botwick announced an export deal for completely built-up Blazers which could be worth as much as US$30 million per year.
Two Blazers are headed for Africa and five to Malaysia this month to begin type approval and homologation procedures and to be used for market research.
Once this procedure is completed, GMBI expects to begin volume exports of Blazer to countries including South Africa, Namibia, Kenya and Malaysia in the first quarter of next year.
Botwick said he was confident the export program would proceed and conservatively estimated initial volumes of about 1,000 cars per year.
"I'm fairly confident about the market reception and I assume that we will see the same kind of enthusiasm for the product that we have seen here," Botwick said.
"In terms of the type approval, we are generally familiar with the legal requirements and there will be some changes required to our product but we think we can meet the legal requirement in most of those countries," he said.
In addition to the export of completely built-up Blazers, GMBI is also planning to start component exports later this year to international GM operations.
Although any formal contracts are yet to be signed, the company is confident they will proceed with the component exports, which would include parts produced by Indonesian suppliers to GMBI.
GMBI currently has about 70 local suppliers, with local content of the Blazer, in dollar terms, running at about 40 per cent.