Another large investment in Indonesia’s automaking industry has been announced by a government minister.
Nissan Motor plans to spend US$400m to boost its local plant capacity to 250,000 units a year in 2014 from 100,000 units a year today, industry minister MS Hidayat was quoted as saying on Monday (19 March) by Dow Jones. In 2010, annual capacity was just 50,000 units, the report noted.
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Hidayat spoke to reporters after a meeting with Nissan chief executive Carlos Ghosn though Ghosn and other Nissan officials declined to comment.
Should Nissan proceed, it will be the latest Japanese motor-vehicle maker stepping up investment in Southeast Asia’s biggest economy on the back of its huge domestic market and its increasing appeal as an alternative regional automobile hub to Thailand, the news agency noted.
Honda Motor last week said it would spend JPY27bn (US$325m) building a new plant and boosting annual output to 180,000 vehicles from the current 60,000. The automaker will also spend $340m on a fourth motorcycle factory in Indonesia, bringing output to 5.3m units a year.
Dow JOnes said Indonesia’s 240m population is the country’s key growth driver and shields the country to a large extent from global economic shocks.
New motorcycle sales topped 8m units last year while new car sales reached nearly 900,000.
Other automakers, including Toyota, its Daihatsu affiliate, GM, Tata and Suzuki, have announced expansion plans for Indonesia recently.
