Toyota Secures Control Of Indonesia’s Car Market
Amidst the soaring threats of striking another global recession and skyrocketing prices in fuel, consumers in Indonesia manage to cultivate a growing penchant for cars, commodity gladly perceived prolific by Asia's largest car manufacturer, Toyota Motor Corporations.
A company official who speaks in anonymity told Bloomberg that Toyota will invest $387 million on a facility in Karawang, where its Daihatsu Motor Co. already operates two plants manufacturing Avanza minivans. In May this year, Toyota announced that its 16.5 billion yen investment on Karawang's production capacity will see remarkable outcome come 2013, AP and AFP reported.
Taking Control of the Market
In 2010, Daihatsu sold 281,055 units, sales accounting for more than 37 percent of the overall 745,000 different car units sold in Indonesia. Records showed that including Daihatsu's sale, Toyota controls 60 per cent of the entire market in Indonesia.
Related news said that in 2013, car sales in Indonesia will reach more than 1 million units by all car manufacturers. By 2015, Toyota aims to raise its market sales to half the total in line with the country's 7 percent economy growth expectation next year.
A Brave Move
Toyota's plan of expansion is a bold move as its stocks continue to plunge 0.4 percent lower with 2, 693 at the closing morning trading in Tokyo on Thursday. The figure widens the plummet to 16 percent this year in contrast to 14 percent decline on Nikkei 225 stock average benchmark.
In this year's Q3, Indonesia boasted an increase in its GDP to 6.49 percent. An official of the Central Bureau of Statistics beamed that April-June GDP is the third straight quarter where Indonesia's GDP exceeded the 6-percent mark.