Factory Relocation Plan from Thailand, Isuzu Yet to Confirm Its Progress

AUTOMOTIVE - JAKARTA. Automotive company PT Isuzu Astra Motor Indonesia (IAMI) stated that it cannot yet provide certainty and progress on the relocation of the Isuzu Thailand factory to Indonesia.

Met at a media gathering in Central Jakarta, Puti Annisa Moeloek, Marketing Communications Manager of IAMI, explained that the collaboration is still ongoing, but still requires deeper discussion.

"Regarding the factory relocation, we still can't provide a definite update. This requires high-level discussion, but all cooperation is still ongoing," she explained, Thursday (25/1).

For information, in mid-2023, the Ministry of Industry announced that automotive company Isuzu Motors Ltd will move its truck factory from Thailand to Indonesia and start production in 2024.  

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With the relocation of the truck factory to Indonesia, the Ministry of Industry hopes that Isuzu can increase the use of domestic components in the assembly process, one of which is by encouraging the type of vehicle that is still assembled using the Completely Knocked Down (CKD) import scheme to be changed to Incompletely Knocked Down (IKD). 

Meanwhile, in Indonesia, the Isuzu factory located in Karawang, West Java, has a fairly high utilization rate, reaching 85%. The production in 2022 is 44,694 units or 15% of Isuzu's total production worldwide. 

"The cooperation is still happening, there has already been a 'mutual agreement' so to speak, so it will be the same here. However, we cannot yet provide certainty when and where the location is because there is no further information from there," she said.