Jodjana Jody, head of sales at PT Toyota Astra Motor, said Toyota sold 18,770 vehicles last month, up 39.1 percent from 13,492 units in the year-ago period, while he predicted total sales from all manufacturers reached around 58,000 last month.

The strong sales growth came despite the government decision to raise subsidised fuel prices in May to help reduce the ballooning fuel subsidy bill in the state budget. Toyota Astra is the distributor of vehicles from Toyota Motor (7203.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) in Indonesia. It is jointly owned by PT Astra International Tbk ASII.JK, the country’s largest automotive distributor, and Toyota.

Last month a senior Toyota Astra official said annual vehicle sales in the fourth most populous nation are expected to touch a historic high of between 575,000-600,000 units despite the fuel price hike.

Automotive sales data is used by analysts to gauge economic activity in Southeast Asia’s biggest economy, where consumption is a key driver of growth.

Some analysts say they expect rising interest rates and inflation to put a brake on the strong pace of automotive sales since most purchases are financed by loans. (Reporting by Harry Suhartono, editing by Sugita Katyal)

© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Sat, 01/26/2008 3:15 AM  |  Business

JAKARTA (JP): PT Semesta Citra Motorindo (SCM), the producer of Kanzen motorcycles, plans to export part of its engine production to Vietnam.

SCM chief commissioner Rini M.S. Soewandi said last week that Vietnamese buyers were committed to buying about 1,000 Kanzen motorcycle engines worth US$150,000 per month.

“”Vietnam’s demand for motorcycles reaches 1.2 million units while local production can only provide 400,000 units. The rest are supplied by China,”" Rini said as quoted by Bisnis Indonesia.

She was speaking to reporters following the signing of an agreement between SCM and PT Surya Sarana Utama for the distribution of Kanzen motorcycles in Yogyakarta. She added that Vietnam’s large market was promising as there was the potential for local motorcycle component producers to take advantage of it.

As an initial step, they would export engines, but over the next year they would start to export completely built up motorcycles, she added.

Rini, who owns a 60 percent stake in the company, said she felt optimistic that her company’s engines would be able to take advantage of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) agreement, which comes fully into effect in 2002.

Under the AFTA scheme, tariffs on imports from within the Association of the Southeast Asian States (ASEAN) member countries should be lowered to between zero percent and 5 percent.

Rini said her company would start to supply the Vietnamese buyers through its plant in Karawang, West Java, which is now under construction. The new plant has the capacity to assemble about 3,000 motorcycles per month.

SCM, which uses the Kanzen brand name for its motorcycles, currently has the capacity to produce about 1,500 motorcyles per month.

Production capacity would be increased to 5,000 units per month by the end of this year, Rini said. (03)

TOKYO, Jul 15, 2008 (Asia In Focus via COMTEX) — KWHIY | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating — Buoyed by strong demand for a just-launched sporty motorcycle in the Philippines, KAWASAKI HEAVY INDUSTRIES LTD. (TSE:7012) plans to expand sales to Indonesia next month. According to Kawasaki, the 125cc Fury 125 model is more rigid than other mopeds, enabling it to handle extreme operating conditions.

* Kawasaki had initially planned for annual sales of 20,000 units when the motorbike recently debuted in the Philippines, but strong demand has prompted it to double its target.

* The company anticipates even better sales in Indonesia, where the motorcycle market is growing at a blistering pace.