Perodua to expand Rawang plant

PERUSAHAAN Otomobil Kedua Sdn Bhd (Perodua) plans to expand its 138-hectare manufacturing plant in Sungai Choh, Rawang, Selangor, by March 2010.

This is to fulfill an increasing demand for the export market in future, managing director Datuk Syed Abdull Hafiz Syed Abu Bakar said today.

Speaking to reporters after a Perodua Alza prize giving ceremony in Petaling Jaya, he said it was also time for the company to go for an upgrading of the facility with an overwhelming response for the company's three models to date.

"Our plant must be upgraded next year. There is insufficient capacity if we want to expand our export market or even export the new multi-purpose vehicle (MPV) Alza," he told reporters.
The manufacturing facility currently has the capacity to produce 250,000 cars annually on two-shift cyle.

It houses among others, the Perodua corporate building, research and development testing laboratories and styling studio, vehicle test track, manufacturing plant, engine plant, pre-delivery inspection area, vehicle distribution stockyard and a parts warehouse.

"Before the launch of the Alza, we did a feasibility study and the target was to sell 2,800 units monthly. But now (based on the response), we believe that sales can easily reach 4,000 monthly from January onwards.

"So, we now have to increase the plant capacity and land is not an issue as we still have a huge vacant space for expansion," he said.

Syed Abdull Hafiz also said Perodua was on track to achieve the group’s quality benchmark of 0.2 defects per car, for it to expand overseas.

He said the company has set the target of achieving 176,000 units sales in 2010 from the 164,000 estimated earlier for 2009.

If achieved, the 2010 numbers will be the highest in respect of sales, in Perodua's history since its establishment in 1993.

Until November 2009, Perodua recorded sales of 151,000 units, with a 53 per contribution from Myvi.

On the Alza, the company received some 11,000 bookings as of November 4, with a waiting period of between 2-3 months.

To date, 400 units of the Alza have been registered and the company expects about 50,000 units to be on the road in 2010.

Despite the strong interest for the Alza, bookings for the Myvi and ViVA continued to be strong in November, with close to 10,000 and 7,000 units respectively.

According to Syed Abdull Hafiz, Perodua plans to roll out a new compact car in 2011 to strengthen its market, both locally and overseas.

Meanwhile, four lucky Myvi buyers drove away with a brand new 1.5L premium Perodua Alza each, after they were picked as the grand prize winners of the "Myvi Moment" contest.