JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - Domestic car sales in August are expected to fall 4.5 percent to 66,500 units from the month before on low production, a car producer said.
"The drop was caused by a drop in the supply of products from the factories. Workers cannot work for maximum productivity during this fasting month," Amelia Tjandra, marketing director of PT Astra Daihatsu Motor (ADM), sole authorized agent of Japanese car maker Daihatsu, said on Saturday. Because of the declining production sole authorized agents were overwhelmed by surging orders, he said. As a result, the delivery of most-sought cars such as Daihatsu Xenia and Toyota Avanza minivans was one to two months longer than scheduled, he said. The imbalance between supply and demand caused car stocks at dealers nationwide to fall, he said. "Our stocks for the national market currently stand at 6,000 units. On average the stocks are only enough for 0.3 to 0.4 month. That’s too low," he said. Daihatsu expects its car sales this year to hit a record high of 110 thousand units compared to 75 thousand units a year earlier. The figure is expected to put Daihatsu in the second place next to Toyota in the domestic market.
