KUALA LUMPUR: Suzuki Motor Corp has shut down its Malaysian motorcycle assembly plant following weak demand. The decision to close Suzuki Assemblers Malaysia Sdn Bhd was due to the limited economies of scale, the Nikkei Asian Review reported yesterday. The plant, which was established in 1971, assembled scooters and kapchais, including the Suzuki Address, Nex, Axelo and Belang, among other sub-150cc models. The report said the plant’s annual output was nearly halved to around 8,000 units in fiscal 2015, compared with fiscal 2013.
“The company will now export bikes straight from Japan. It had assembled scooters and other models at the site by installing engines and other core parts procured elsewhere. “Efforts to raise efficiency bore little fruit owing to the facility’s limited scale. Therefore, the company decided to focus on exporting lucrative larger models from Japan,” added the report. Suzuki had been struggling to boost motorcycle sales in Asia, and its profitability remained low. Attempts to contact the factory management went unanswered. Sources said the Goods and Services Tax implementation last year and rising cost of living had severely impacted the sale of Suzuki motorcycles, here. Suzuki had earlier ceased production of its cars in Malaysia.
The company, however, signed a pact with Proton Holdings Bhd in June 2015 to start producing new vehicles developed jointly before the year-end. Suzuki would reportedly share its car platforms and technologies with Proton and use the national carmaker’s distribution and service network for its rebranded cars. More than two dozen showrooms selling and providing services to Suzuki customers had been converted into Proton outlets, said Proton previously in a statement. Proton is expected to launch its new seven-seater MPV that will be based on Suzuki Ertiga in October.
