Association of Indonesian Automotive Manufacturers (Gaikindo) secretary-general Kukuh Kumara said on Monday that the country’s carmakers were working with the Trade Ministry, Industry Ministry and Foreign Ministry to lobby car brands, also known as "principals", to reallocate domestic car production to international orders.

“The principals have to agree for Indonesian-made car to be exported to other countries, and authorizing additional car variants for export from Indonesia,” Kukuh said during an online discussion organized by marketing consulting firm Markplus.

The COVID-19 crisis has battered car sales this year with declining purchasing power of consumers and the temporary closure of showrooms. The association has slashed its domestic car wholesales target by 40 percent to 600,000 units this year.

Gaikindo recorded around 323,400 cars sold between January and August, down more than 50 percent from 661,000 sold during the same period last year.

Kukuh said that reallocating car production orders from the domestic to the international market could boost the utilization rates of factories, which were currently running far below capacity as carmakers have slashed production in response to plummeting demand.

According to Gaikindo data, Indonesian car production from January to August plummeted 48.5 percent year-on-year (yoy) to 427,600 units, far below Indonesia’s annual car production capacity of around 2.3 million units.

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