Harley-Davidson Said to Have Closed Its Assembly Plant in Indonesia
Jakarta. Mabua Motor Indonesia, the authorized distributor of Harley-Davidson motorcycles in the country, closed its assembly plant in Pulo Gadung, East Jakarta, due to high costs and the lengthy period of the assembly process, according to state-run Antara news service.
“We are following costumers’ needs,” Djonnie Rahmat, president director of Mabua Motor, was quoted as saying on Wednesday by Antara.
“Completely knocked down motorcycles take a longer time to [be delivered to customers] while completely built-up ones are faster,” he told Antara, adding that high domestic costs also don’t make it practical to keep the plant open.
The Mabua plant completed its last assembly in December. Djonnie said the flagging domestic automotive market also affected the company’s decision to shut the plant. Indonesian motorcycle sales dropped 17 percent in the first quarter this year from the period in 2014, according to data from Indonesian Motorcycle Industry Association (AISI).
Djonnie told Antara that the company avoided laying off employees in the plant by shifting them to a new division named “mobile services” in several regions, such as Pekanbaru in Riau and Palembang in South Sumatra.
Mabua is keeping an eye on the domestic economy and business conditions in deciding whether to reopen the facility, Antara reports.
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