The Star Online: Business
The Star Online: Business |
- New sportier-looking Myvi 1.5 to drive up its sales
- Toyota to build new US$388mil factory in Indonesia Nikkei
- Shanghai banks tighten mortgage lending paper
| New sportier-looking Myvi 1.5 to drive up its sales Posted: 08 Sep 2011 06:14 PM PDT PETALING JAYA: A new and sportier-looking 1.5-litre variant of the Myvi is expected to boost vehicle sales at Perusahaan Otomobil Kedua Sdn Bhd (Perodua) this year, motor analysts said. Pictures of the more powerful Myvi variant have surfaced on automotive blogs recently, and industry observers say Perodua is likely to launch the car by year-end. "This will open a new market segment for Perodua. Judging from the online photos, the 1.5-litre Myvi variant looks quite sporty with a full body kit, revamped front end and rear roof spoiler. People have been modifying the previous-generation Myvi anyway with similar looks," an analyst told StarBiz. A CIMB Research motor analyst concurred, saying a sporty 1.5-litre Myvi variant would expand Perodua's product line-up and enable the firm to better compete against Proton Holdings Bhd, which offers the Saga FL 1.6 Executive at RM46,549 (on-the-road with insurance). "Depending on its price tag, a 1.5-litre Myvi would definitely boost Perodua sales," the CIMB Research analyst said. However, another motor analyst with a local bank was more cautious, pointing out that the top-end variant of the new 1.3-litre Myvi is priced at RM50,800 (on-the-road with insurance). "A sporty 1.5-litre Myvi variant could be considered to be slightly expensive by buyers if it is priced in the mid RM60,000 range. Buyers will compare its pricing against the Saga FL 1.6 Executive's price tag," the analyst said. Perodua has seen brisk sales of the 1.3-litre Myvi since its launch in mid-June, and has delivered 18,000 units to date. A further 16,000 units are due to be delivered over the next two months. The carmaker, which aims to sell 190,000 vehicles this year, has to-date sold about 115,000 units. |
| Toyota to build new US$388mil factory in Indonesia Nikkei Posted: 08 Sep 2011 06:05 PM PDT TOKYO, Sept 9 (Reuters) Toyota Motor Corp plans to spend nearly 30 billion yen($388 million) to build an assembly plant in Indonesia that it aims to launch in the first half of 2013, the Nikkei business daily said, as it taps demand from the fastgrowing Southeast Asian auto market. The move would enable Toyota to nearly double its production capacity in Indonesia to about 200,000 vehicles a year, the Nikkei said. The plan comes after three years of limiting capital investment to expanding existing plants in Japan and abroad, the Nikkei said. The facility will be built adjacent to its existing factory in the Jakarta suburbs of Karawang and is expected to assemble three subcompact models, including a lowpriced strategic vehicle under development for the country, the paper said. Officials at Toyota were off on Friday and unavailable to immediately comment on the report. Toyota aims to increase its output in Southeast Asia's biggest economy and said in May it would spend 16.5 billion yen to boost production capacity there to 140,000 vehicles a year in early 2013 from 100,000 units. Last year, auto sales in Indonesia totalled around 750,000 units, approaching Thailand's roughly 800,000, with the number seen exceeding 1 million units in the coming years, the Nikkei said. Toyota controls about 60 percent of the Indonesian market when contributions by group firms such as Daihatsu Motor Co are included. But as competition grows with Nissan Motor and Suzuki Motor announcing plans to boost output, Toyota aims to improve cost competitiveness through increased local production, the Nikkei reported. Other global automakers are looking to increase production in Indonesia. On Thursday, the Indonesia head of Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd told Reuters that the Chinese automaker plans to set up a car factory in country by 2015. Shares of Toyota were down 0.1 percent in early morning trade on Friday, in line with the benchmark Nikkei average. ($1 = 77.365 Japanese Yen) |
| Shanghai banks tighten mortgage lending paper Posted: 08 Sep 2011 06:00 PM PDT BEIJING, Sept 9 (Reuters) Chinese banks in Shanghai have either stopped mortgage lending or are making it harder to get loans, the official China Securities Journal reported on Friday. The central bank's recent move to widen the base of total deposits that banks must set aside for reserves further crimped banks' ability to lend, while record high home prices are also making them nervous, the newspaper said, citing unnamed banking sources. Banks in Shanghai that the newspaper visited have taken various steps including halting mortgage lending, extending loan approval times because of tight quotas, excluding applicants whose homes are old or expensive or raising mortgage rates beyond regulatory requirements, the paper said. China has rolled out a slew of measures since late 2009 to curb property speculation and rein in runaway housing inflation. So far, they have yielded some results and there are growing signs that home prices are starting to fall in some cities where they have gained rapidly in the past few years. The top banking regulator has constantly warned against lending to the real estate sector, but has also repeatedly reaffirmed that Chinese banks could withstand home price falls of up to 50 percent. |
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