KUALA LUMPUR: Perodua, which has revised upward its sales target by 4,000 units this year, aims to increase its production volume to 249,000 units this year in a bid to address the delivery time issue.
Speaking at a media conference on its first-half performance review today, its president and CEO Datuk Zainal Abidin Ahmad said the increase in production will improve its stock levels to 0.5%, based on its monthly production level, from the current 0.1%.
This will effectively reduce the waiting time to less than a month for its customers.
“At the moment, there is a two-month waiting period for our vehicles and this is due to our stock levels being very low, but the production volume increase will address this issue... hopefully, next year we’ll have the right footing with a good level of inventory so that we do not have the same problem with this year.”
The 249,000 production target represents a 12.9% increase from the 220,600 units produced in 2018. Currently, its monthly production ranges between 18,000 and 20,000 units.
At present, both of its production facilities are running at full capacity of 97%.
On sales, Perodua sold 121,800 units in the first half of the year, a 4% increase from 117,100 units recorded in the same period last year.
Following that, it has set a higher sales target of 235,000 units from its previous estimate of 231,000 units.
In 2018, Perodua sold 227,243 vehicles, the highest annual sales achievement in its history.
As for its export market, Perodua has a target of 3,270 units for 2019, of which 2,170 units from the Indonesian market.
Last year, it exported 2,184 units, significantly lower than the 9,000 units achieved in 2012.
Zainal explained that Perodua needs to fulfil domestic market requirements before exporting overseas and it also depends on whether the group could achieve cost competitiveness.
With regard to capital expenditure, Perodua has spent RM102.2 million in the first half of 2019, out of the RM667.6 million allocated for the year.
Zainal said the bulk of it will be utilised towards expanding its test track in its research and development facilities to ensure that Perodua is ready to meet any new regulatory development that will be introduced in the future.
For 2019, Perodua estimates that it will have a market share of 40%.
