INDONESIA: Multistrada to expand tire business in US

Publicly listed company PT Multistrada Arah Sarana, producer of Achilles and Corsa tires, will further expand its business in the US this year.

The company’s vice president director, Henryanto Komala, said that the company has opened a representative office in Los Angeles.

“We will engage with more distributors in the US, unlike we did in previous years when we only had one distributor for the whole US,” he said.

By having a representative office, he said the company would be able to directly witness the potential of the market and provide firsthand information to consumers.

Tire sales to the US reached USD 55.5 million in 2015, a 58 percent increase from the USD 35 million in 2014, he said.

To improve its sales, the company plans to launch its new car tire product in the US in August, the company’s deputy director, Cindyanto K. Tjong said.

He said 70 percent of the company’s output is exported to more than 90 countries and the remainder for the local market.

Multistrada currently produces 28,500 car tires per day under the Achilles brand and 16,000 motorcycle tires under Corsa.

Last year, the company recorded a USD 237 million net profit, a 16 percent drop year-on-year from USD 282 in 2014 as a result of lower export sales, lower prices in the global market and the weakening of rupiah against US dollar.

Source: Daily “The Jakarta Post”, Jakarta; 25 June 2016

(Syed Rashid Ali, Karachi, Pakistan)