|
Despite rising inflation and the surging costs resulting from
higher oil prices and the weakening rupiah, Indonesia's car
manufacturers say they will limit an increase in car prices to between
2 and 3 percent next year.
The automotive companies said here Wednesday if car prices were fully
adjusted to the impact of surging oil prices and inflation of about 6.5
percent this year, the price increase would be far higher than 5
percent.
"The increase of production costs by, say, 5 percent as a result of oil
price rises does not necessarily mean that we can increase prices by 5
percent as we have to consider the market conditions," PT Toyota Astra
Motor (TAM) president director Johnny Darmawan said in Jakarta on
Tuesday.
While saying that inflation was not factored into the price increase
projection, Johnny said that from the 5 percent estimate, Toyota would
likely transfer the burden of the production costs to consumers by 2 to
3 percent next year, covering the remaining 2 percent by internal
efficiencies.
TAM general manager for sales and marketing Jodjana Jody confirmed the
2 to 3 percent increase estimate, but said the exact calculation would
have to wait until the end of this month.
Car sales in 2006 plummeted by 40.27 percent to 318,883 units from
533,910 units in 2005, after the government raised fuel prices by 126
percent in October 2005.
Earlier this month the government said it was considering forcing all
private cars to use non-subsidized fuel instead of Pertamina's Premium
gasoline next year, to lower the burden on the state budget from the
fuel subsidy, which is expected to reach Rp 90 trillion from the
budgeted Rp 55 trillion for this year.
The rise in global oil prices and the weakening rupiah against the U.S.
dollar and Japanese yen is a blow for local car producers, as the range
of imported components in a locally manufactured car can range from 15
to 25 percent.
The rupiah has declined 3 percent in the past month as crude oil prices
have continued to increase in the past several weeks. Oil price fell to
$97 per barrel Tuesday after reaching $99 a barrel last week.
"The impact of the weakening rupiah is significant considering many of
us manufacturers import components from either Japan or Thailand. Even
the prices of local components are going up as many of them use
imported materials," PT Honda Prospect Motor sales general manager
Jonfis Fandy said.
The increase in production costs for Honda cars ranges from 3 to 7
percent.
|
