JAKARTA. Motorcycle sales have dampened across major producers, with market leader Astra Honda Motor seeing its sales plunge by 25.35 percent to 872,262 units, while rival Yamaha Indonesia Motor Manufacturing recorded a 28.99 percent drop in sales to 436,692 units in the first quarter this year, according to data from the business group.

Indonesian Motorcycle Industry Association’s (AISI) chairman Gunadi Sindhuwinata said on Tuesday that high inflation triggered by the price fuel increase since late last year had eroded consumers’ purchasing power. Buyers of two wheelers are commonly those in the middle and lower classes, thereby more sensitive to any price shocks. 

“The sharp decline in the first quarter is beyond our expectations and there’s no sign that the ongoing situation will likely stop,” Gunadi told The Jakarta Post. 

In addition to this, a gloomy outlook was also attributed to weak commodity prices, which affected purchases in growth markets outside Java, he added.

In recent years, sales outside Java have climbed markedly, particularly in commodity rich regions, helping to boost two-wheeler sales on Java, which have begun to saturate despite a continued dominant position in the national market.

In the January-March period, the deliveries of motorcycles in Java totaled 1.04 million units, representing a 63.27 percent share of total sales.

Gunadi further said that sales might pick up slightly in the second quarter, notably in the month ahead of Idul Fitri festivities, although the increase would be more modest compared to previous years.

The religious celebration, which this year will fall in mid-July, normally pushes up vehicles sales, especially motorcycles, as they are widely used by those going on holiday during this time.

“We may see an increase from 5 to 8 percent in the quarter, but then sales will likely slip again to the normal level in the months after,” Gunadi said.

Realizing a potential hardship period throughout the rest of the year, motorcycle producers have lowered their full-year sales targets.

The targets are set between 6.8 million and 7 million units for the entire year, down by 21.47 percent from the prior figure of 8.26 million units, according to the AISI.

The revised target emerged following a less-than-expected sales achievement in the first quarter of this year. 

Motorcycle sales, a key indicator of domestic consumption in the country, slumped by 19.10 percent to 1.61 million units. Earlier the business group had aimed to increase sales by up to 5 percent from last year.

AISI took a similar step to the Association of Indonesian Automotive Manufacturers (Gaikindo), which scaled down its sales target by up to 16.67 percent to between 1 million and 1.1 million units for 2015 last week, against a backdrop of falling sales, which fell by 14.05 percent to 282,345 units in the initial quarter of the year on weaker consumer buying power.

Indonesia saw its gross domestic product growth drop to 4.71 percent in the first quarter, the slowest growth rate recorded in six years since the third quarter of 2009, according to latest data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS). (Linda Yulisman)

Editor: Yudho Winarto