Honda to Expand Annual Motorcycle Production Capacity in Indonesia
PT Astra Honda Motor (AHJ), Honda's joint venture company in Indonesia responsible for motorcycle production and sales, announced plans to expand its annual motorcycle production capacity to 3.5 million units before the end of this year, and then construct a new plant with an annual production capacity of 500,000 units to expand total capacity to 4 million units before the end of 2011.In order to meet growing demand for motorcycles in Indonesia, AHJ recently increased its annual production capacity from 3 million units as of the end of 2009, to 3.3 million units as of the end of May 2010, through the addition of a new line to an existing plant. Now, AHJ will further increase its capacity to 3.5 million units by the end of 2010. The new plant will be built on the grounds of the third plant, and is scheduled to become operational in the latter half of 2011. The total investment for the new plant will be approximately 760 billion Rupiah (approximately 2.7 billion baht). AHJ's total employment will increase from the current 16,000 to 17,000 associates at full capacity.
In addition, AHJ has enhanced its lineup of automatic transmission (AT) models by introducing three new AT models in August 2009, a new scooter model, Scoopy, in May 2010, and a new strategic global model scooter, PCX, in June 2010. Moreover, AHJ today introduced a new Cub-type AT model, Revo AT, which is equipped with the CV-Matic, Honda's newly developed automatic transmission for Cub-style scooters. AHJ's sales plan for 2010 is approximately 3.21 million units, (up about 20% compared to 2009) and actual sales is expected to exceed the 2009 sales result (approximately 2.7 million units).
Industry-wide motorcycle sales in Indonesia, which is now the third largest motorcycle market in the world after only China and India, totaled approximately 5.85 million units in 2009, and is expected to reach a record high of approximately 6.8 million units this year. AHJ will continue to add a number of new models in order to fulfill demand from a broader range of customers in the rapidly growing market.
In order to accommodate the dramatic growth of the motorcycle market in Asia, Honda will expand motorcycle production capacities in India, Vietnam and Indonesia before the end of 2011. As a result, Honda’s overall annual motorcycle production capacity in the company’s Asian Region (excluding Japan) will increase from the current 16 million units to 18 million units by the end of 2011.
