Opel to expand its range with Frontera and Sintra

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.