Indonesian car production still lags behind that of Thailand
Kabar Oto, 24 Sep '20
Indonesia is one of the countries where the development of the automotive industry is quite good. Secretary General of the Association of Indonesian Automotive Manufacturers (Gaikindo), Kukuh Kumara said the position of the Indonesian automotive industry in 2019 was ranked 13th.
Meanwhile, from the point of view of sales of four-wheeled vehicles, the country is ranked 15th.
"We are competing with Thailand, which is far ahead of Indonesia," he explained in a Webminar.
However, according to Kukuh, Indonesia is still superior to Thailand for the domestic market. Meanwhile, in Asean, Indonesia's production is still lag behind Thailand which already capable of producing 2 million units of cars per year. Meanwhile, Indonesia has only producing 1.3 million units per year.
"This is a challenge on how we can surpass Thailand, which has a smaller population," he explained.
The installed production capacity in Indonesia reaches 2.3 million units per year. "This means that if the production is still below the capacity of 1.3 million, it can be increased," explained Kukuh.
Meanwhile, the people involved in the four-wheeler industry reached 1.5 million. "If combined with two wheeler, it could be 3 million involved," he explained.
The number involved starts from upstream to downstream, providing components, assembling and producing to shipping and even sales. The automotive industry also ranks as the 8th leading export for Indonesia, with 300 thousand units per year.
"If it increased to 1 million units, it will be the highest non-oil and gas exports," added Kukuh.
He also added that Indonesia has actually entered 1 million clubs, meaning that it has produced more than 1 million cars, and then sold 1 million domestically.
"There are only a few countries like that, we should be proud," concluded Kukuh.