Toyota Q1 domestic sales up 34%

Toyota Q1 domestic sales up 34%

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

PT Toyota Astra Motor (TAM), the distribution arm for Toyota in
Indonesia, reported a 34 percent increase in this year's first-
quarter sales compared to the same period last year.

"It (the increase) is mostly due to orders from domestic
customers and increasing export volume," TAM president Johnny
Darmawan said on Thursday.

He said the strong results came mostly from robust demand for
its multi-purpose vehicles -- the Kijang Innova and Avanza MPVs
-- which represented a combined 33,655 units of the company's
44,369 vehicle units sold for the period ending March 31.

The first quarter sales for Avanza increased by 84 percent to
12,957 compared to the same period last year, while Kijang Innova
sales increased by 24 percent to 20,698. Sales for Toyota sedans
only increased by 12 units from 3,894 to 3,906.

In contrast with its sales growth, Toyota's domestic market
share declined from 31.8 percent in 2004's first quarter to 30.8
percent in this year's first quarter.

"Our 34-percent sales growth was a bit lower than the overall
domestic growth of 38 percent," Johnny said.

The company -- which is owned by PT Astra International and
Japan's Toyota Motor Corp. with 51 percent and 49 percent shares
respectively -- plans to introduce the Fortuner in the second
semester.

The new line is expected to grab a share in the lucrative 4x2
sports utility vehicle (SUV) market, which is currently dominated
by Nissan X-Trail and Honda CR-V -- both are offered at more than
Rp 200 million (US$20,975).

"The price (of the Fortuner) will be competitive," Johnny
said.

He added that so far TAM had yet to see any detrimental
impacts on sales because of the fuel price hike and the decline
of the rupiah.

However, he said if the currency continued to decline, it
would eventually affect domestic car sales, which the Association
of Indonesian Automotive Manufacturers estimated would reach
520,000 units this year.

"That figure is a little bit too low," Johnny said. "We're
optimistic that total domestic car sales will be between 550,000
and 570,000."

Johnny said car sales could even reach 600,000 units based on
the seasonal increase of 10 percent to 15 percent in sales for
the second and third quarters compared to the first quarter.

First quarter domestic car sales increased from 103,622 units
in 2004 to 143,986 in 2005. Passenger vehicles sales during the
period increased by 38.5 percent from 67,595 last year to 93,627
this year.

Indonesia is one of the fastest growing car markets in the
world, recording a 36 percent growth in car sales to about
483,000 units last year.

This makes it the third-largest car market in Southeast Asia
after Thailand's roughly 620,000 and Malaysia's estimated
485,000. (002)