Group plays second to none in regional export plan

FELLOW national carmaker Perodua has generally fared better compared to Proton, analysts observed.

Ministry of International Trade and Industry’s Mustapa told Bernama that Perodua was currently doing very well with domestic sales of 207,110 units last year with 35 per cent share of the overall total industry volume, putting Perodua as market leader in the local motor vehicle industry.

Perodua was also developing an export plan to widen its market in Asean, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation countries and Africa, he added.

“Perodua already exports close to 5,000 units yearly to Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Fiji, Brunei and Mauritius.

“Also, it is working to get our local vendors to participate in the supply chain of Daihatsu,” he added.

For the first quarter of 2017 (1Q17), Perodua exported 941 vehicles to six countries, which was a decrease of 41 per cent from 1,600 vehicles in the same quarter last year.

Despite the shortfall in export so far this year, Perodua president and chief executive officer (CEO) Datuk (Dr) Aminar Rashid Salleh Aminar said that Perodua relatively positive to achieve its export target of 5,000 units in 2017, which is almost the same figure as 2016.

“We aim to steadily grow our regional reach as we further improve our operations to become globally competitive,” he said.

Mustapa went on to say in an interview with Bernama that the introduction of the Bezza model last year and its positive reception, demonstrated the Perodua’s capability in venturing to other segments.

In fact, Bezza was part of the reason why Perodua saw a steady increase in vehicle production year on year (y-o-y)

According to Perodua, it produced 49,218 vehicles in 1Q17 against 48,300 vehicles in the same quarter of 2016.

“The increasing number of vehicle produce is due to a high demand of our new Axia Facelift and Bezza,” the group said.

The Bezza model’s upper body was styled and developed completely in-house by Perodua.

Additionally, Bernama pointed out that Perodua has more than 100 local vendors to participate in the manufacturing of parts and components to meet its needs.

“These initiatives are a testament to Perodua’s commitment to move up the value chain and its ability to be globally competitive.

“Perodua’s business model to tie-up with Daihatsu has proven to be successful and it must continue to undertake aggressive exports promotions to market its cars abroad,” Mustapa said.

Generally, Perodua is cautiously optimistic of achieving its sales target of 202,000 units for the year.

“We also foresee that despite the challenges in the automotive industry, there will be modest growth for the industry this year,” Aminar projected.