Japanese carmaker Suzuki has set its sights on massive growth in the increasingly important market of Indonesia.
It wants to triple its output in the country to 150,000 units a year and plans to invest around US$390million to set up engine manufacturing operations in the region, in order to achieve this goal.
With the investment in place, Suzuki wants to offer everything from parts production to finished engines by 2015 and will start up the engine plant and a facility for cast and forged engine parts around the same time.
According to a report in Japanese business daily, The Nikkei, Suzuki has been assembling its Swift and SX4 vehicles inIndonesia and wants to lift capacity there from around 120,000 a year to at least 150,000 by next spring.
The moves come as automotive sales in Indonesia leapt by around 60 per cent last year to 760,000 vehicles in 2010 – placing it only marginally behind Thailand’s 800,000 units. Though official figures are not yet available it is believed that Indonesia will have established itself as the biggest auto market in South East Asia in 2011.
