PT Astra launches new model of Kijang

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)