PT Astra launches new model of Kijang

JAKARTA (JP): PT Toyota Astra Motor, a subsidiary of the country's largest automaker PT Astra International, launched a totally new model of Kijang van yesterday amid tight competition in the country's car market.

The new model will carry an off-road price-tag of between Rp 27.05 million and Rp 43.4 million (around US$18,000).

Toyota Astra Motor's President Rudyanto Hardjanto said the firm had spent four years developing the model. "We planned to launch the new Kijang long before the national car concept emerged as a hot issue last year," he said.

To develop the model the company spent around US$70 million, he said. Costs included an assembly plant and the design of manufacturing processes which would increase production capacity and local content.

The new Kijang van, which will have 45.8 percent local content, will be sold in 20 types with manual or automatic transmissions and using gasoline or automotive diesel oil.

By 1999 the van's local content would reach 60 percent.

"Our production will reach 7,000 units in April," he said, adding that this year's total production would reach 75,000, some of which would be exported.

According to figures from PT Astra International, from 1986 to 1996 the firm exported 5,541 Kijang vans to Brunei, 489 Kijang pickups to Papua New Guinea and 283 Kijang vans and pickups to Fiji, Salomon and Tonga.

Alam Wijono, the company's marketing director said the firm had sold 616,525 Kijang models to November 1996.

He said although 3,800 older model Kijangs remained, the company had so far received more than 4,000 orders for the new Kijang vans.

The launch of the new model is timed to commemorate Astra International's 40th anniversary on Feb. 20.

Alam said the Kijang would face strong competition from similar vans already on the market, including Isuzu Panther and Espass, and several types of sedans especially those priced between Rp 35 million and Rp 45 million.

Toyota Astra Motor, which together with its holding company, PT Astra International, was again voted by the Far Eastern Economic Review magazine last month as Indonesia's corporate leaders, seems to have anticipated the stiff competition.

In a move to strengthen its foothold in the local market, Astra International's President Theodore P Rachmat recently announced that the company planned to produce a 1500cc sedan by 1998, in a joint venture with its Japanese principal, Toyota Corporation.

The joint venture would inject around US$300 million into the Astra plant, with Astra International controlling 51 percent of the venture, he said.

The assembly plant will be built on a 500-hectare area at the Karawang International Industrial City in West Java but the model will also be manufactured in Thailand.

PT Astra International recorded total sales of Rp 9.9 trillion from January to September 1996, up from Rp 9.4 trillion in 1995, and expected Rp 450 billion in net profits last year. (09)