Posted on 22 Oct 2009
Car sales slowed down in September from a year-to-date record high in August, but the figures continue to show signs of improvement for an industry hit hard by the impact of the global economic downturn.
Up to 37,209 cars were sold in September, a decline from 48,105 units in the previous month, the Indonesian Automotive Industry Association (Gaikindo) said Monday.
Accumulatively, sales in the January-September period stood at 337,470 units which represented a 27 percent drop from those of a year earlier. While sales still decreased from last year, the rate of decline in sales continued to slow down, as the drop in the first few months of the year reached well over 30 percent.
Of total sales, cars distributed by PT Astra International dominated the market in the first nine months of the year with a 58 percent market share, slightly higher than the 55 percent they achieved during 2008.
Astra sells various brands manufactured by
The economy is targeted to grow by 4.3 percent this year, a decline compared to 6.1 percent in 2008, as the global economic turmoil hit the country's export-oriented industries including the labor-intensive manufacturing sector, eventually reducing consumer spending power.
Meanwhile, motorcycle sales in September stood at 421,661 units to bring sales in the first nine months of the year to 4,139,711 units, a decline of 13.8 percent compared to the same period the year before.
Honda, Yamaha, and Suzuki took the first, second and third largest market shares, respectively.
