Annual car sales have been projected to reach 1.1 million units because the new factories of Nissan, Honda, and Daihatsu have become operational. That would automatically increase the national car supply.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The government has set the national car sales target at 1.1 million units for the year 2013, in light of the fact that some Japanese companies have started operations at their new factories in Indonesia.

"Annual car sales have been projected to reach 1.1 million units because the new factories of Nissan, Honda, and Daihatsu have become operational. That would automatically increase the national car supply," said Budi Darmadi, the Industry Ministry`s director general for high-technology priority industries, here on Wednesday.

"The 2012 national car sales, meanwhile, is likely to touch 950,000 units because of increased production capacity of some our major sole agents," he stated.

"Towards the end of this year, there has been an increase in car demand across the country. The Indonesia International Motor Show 2012 event seems to have contributed significantly to national car sales," Budi noted.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Association of Indonesian Automotive Industry (Gaikindo), Sudirman Maman Rusdi, said the Indonesian automotive industry could surpass that of Thailand in three to four years` time.

"However, the government should set up the necessary infrastructure, implement appropriate policies, provide suitable incentives for research and development, and ensure adequate availability of raw materials such as iron, aluminium, rubber and plastic," he pointed out.

"If the infrastructure and the economy improve, industries can easily increase their production capacity according to market demand," Sudirman said.

"The automotive enterprises and the government already have the blueprint ready," he added.

Based on data from Gaikindo, national car sales during January-September 2012 reached 816,322 units. In view of the fact that last year saw total car sales of 894,164 units, the government is optimistic that close to 1 million cars will have been sold by the end of this year.

In September 2012, 102,111 units of cars were sold, compared with 76,445 units sold during the same month last year.

Carmaker Toyota dominated the market by selling 298,646 cars in the past nine months, followed by Daihatsu (120,664), Mitsubishi (109,461) and Suzuki (87,882). (*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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