Learning From The Tightness Of The Indonesian And Thai Markets, Proton: There Are Many Other Markets That Can Be Explored

Proton Exora. (Doc. Proton Holdings)

JAKARTA - Proton, an automotive company from Malaysia, intends to increase its production volume by up to 500,000 units by 50 percent of them for the export market, said Dr. Li Chunrong, as CEO of Proton.

Quoted from Paultan, Wednesday, December 8, Geely, who now houses the Proton brand, wants the manufacturer to be one of the top three car manufacturers in ASEAN, but she highlights the story of this brand in Thailand and Indonesia.

Li mengatakan bahwa pihaknya menyoroti angka produksi pada kedua negara ini yang pernah mencapai angka lebih dari satu juta unit dan mengatakan bahwa persaingannya jauh lebih ketat bila dibandingkan dengan Malaysia.

"So if you want to compete there, you have to be ready with the product, this is important," said Li.

The CEO added that Proton products that entered the Thai and Indonesian markets were fruitless, as a result of the fierce market competition and he did not want to repeat it again.

"Because we have previously lost in Thailand and Indonesia. So, we don't want to lose easily for the second time, so we have to be prepared, we can only go," said Li.

Nevertheless, Proton has shown that there are many markets that can be explored and intend to expand the number of markets by conducting export activities. What's more, both Geely and Proton are discussing producing 500,000 units in Malaysia with half of them exports.

"As management, we must support. This world is very big, not only Indonesia and Thailand," concluded Li.

When in Indonesia, Proton has marketed several models, such as the Exora MPV. In addition, this neighboring manufacturer also has other cars such as Savvy, Gen.2 Persona, Gen 2, Wira, and Neo.

Unfortunately, the story of companies in Indonesia does not produce sweet results. From data from the Association of Indonesian Automotive Industries (GAIKINDO), they on average lost to competing from Japanese manufacturers by only successfully selling 279 units in wholesales in 2017.

This number is decreasing in 2018 which only touched 83 units or fell by 70.3 percent from the previous year. Until finally, Proton left the country's market.