Toyota, group companies to invest $727 m in Indonesia

Reuters: Toyota Motor Corp and group companies are to invest about 7 trillion rupiah ($727 million) in Indonesia over the next five years, in addition to recently announced plans totalling 6 trillion.

To meet growing demand in Southeast Asia’s top economy, Toyota will expand annual capacity at its No.1 Karawang plant by about a fifth to 130,000 vehicles by September 2013, the Japanese carmaker said on Saturday.

That investment will be worth around 310 billion rupiah, spokesman Joichi Tachikawa said. Toyota produces the Kijang Innova and the Fortuner at the No.1 Karawang plant.

Toyota, which has close to 40 percent share of Indonesia’s car market, will also buy land near there to build an engine factory, it said.

Toyota’s five group companies involved in Indonesian investments are Aisin Seiki, Daihatsu Motor, Denso, Toyota Auto Body and Toyota Tsusho .

Earlier this year, Toyota said it was investing 5 trillion rupiah to build No.2 Karawang plant. Denso said in September it was investing about 1 trillion rupiah to build a new plant in Indonesia.

Indonesia’s car market has been growing steadily.

Last year, car sales jumped 17 percent to a record 894,180, data from industry groups showed.