
THE world's automotive market is under the shadow of the global economic crisis, with liquidity and economic pressure still having negative effects on the automotive industry. JD Power and Associates of the
It is not surprising, therefore, that Nissan has postponed the Indonesian launch of the Infiniti. PT Nissan Motor Indonesia (NMI) president director Takayuki Kimura said the Infiniti is one of the most popular brands in the
Indeed, the global financial crisis has affected
Meanwhile PT Honda Prospect Motor increased its prices at the end of 2008. Its Honda All New City, for example, was launched in December 2008, with a price tag of Rp 260 million for the most sophisticated variant, which has reclining seats and automatic transmission. However, PT Honda Prospect Motor marketing and after sales service director Jonfis Fandy commented that the price was high because it was an entirely new product. "The price of All New City was increased not in anticipation of the financial crisis but because it was a totally new product, and so the cost and other expenses went up," he said.
Indeed the automotive industry in
Freddy also said it was hard to make any forecast concerning the local automotive industry, except that second quarter sales were likely to improve during the largest automotive exhibition in Indonesia, the Indonesia International Motor Show (IIMS) 2009, which will be held in July.
However, according to Gaikindo chairman Bambang Trisulo, this year's automotive exports would be unaffected because export destinations were not economically impacted countries, such as the
While American car manufacturers and sole agents seem to be pessimistic, their Indonesian counterparts feel there is a ray of hope for 2009. This can be seen in the number of new models or variants being launched, while others are maintaining production to meet indent orders from customers.
Indomobil Group president director Gunadi Sindhuwinata said that this year's growth trend was not an indication of next year's sales. In fact, he said that car sales in the country would increase by 10 to 15 percent this year. The Industry Ministry also predicts that automotive sales will increase by mid-2009 after slowing in the first few months of the year. “The impact of the global economic crisis here is not as bad as in Western countries, because our consumers still have sufficient purchasing power and at the same time interest rates are quite favorable,” said the Industry Ministry's director general of transportation and telematics equipment Budi Darmadi.
Budi claimed car sales would improve due to various reasons, such as lower lending rates and numerous projects in the private sector that would generate more funds in the market. “Once the numerous projects are realized there will be fresh money in the market,” he emphasized. (Burhanuddin Abe)
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