By Colum Murphy
SHANGHAI-General Motors Co. said Thursday it will close its car
plant in Indonesia by the end of June with a loss of about 500
jobs.
GM's Bekasi plant, located just outside the capital of Jakarta
first opened in 1995 and produces the Chevrolet Spin minivan for
Indonesia and other markets in Southeast Asia. Production at the
plant, suspended in 2005, was reactivated in May 2013.
Earlier this year, GM and its Chinese partner, SAIC Motor Corp.,
announced plans to build and sell low-cost minivans in Indonesia.
SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile Co., a joint venture between GM China,
SAIC and Wuling Motors, said it would set up a manufacturing
facility near Jakarta to build Wuling-brand vehicles. Construction
of that plant is scheduled to begin later this year.
GM said several factors had contributed to its decision to
shutter the Bekasi plant, including the high cost of materials and
"reduced potential to utilize the local supplier base due to
limited scale."
"GM Indonesia is undergoing a market-driven transformation,"
said Stefan Jacoby, GM executive vice president and president of GM
International, said in a statement.
Mr. Jacoby oversees about 100 emerging and developed markets,
excluding China, Russia, Europe and South America.
In the same statement, GM said Michael Dunne, president of GM
Indonesia, had decided to leave the company at the end this month
to start his own business.
Mr. Dunne couldn't immediately be reached for comment
Thursday.
In an interview last August, Mr. Jacoby said that GM was looking
to reinvent itself in overseas markets by focusing on the Chevrolet
brand, streamlining its production processes and range of models,
and restructuring its supply chain.
"Right now, we have a too-diverse product program," Mr. Jacoby
said at the time.
Write to Colum Murphy at colum.murphy@wsj.com
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