Automotive industry still recruiting workers, MAI clarifies Naza staff layout

Kuala Lumpur: The Malaysia Automotive Institute (MAI), an agency under the Ministry of International Trade and Industry clarified the major staff layoff at Naza Automotive Manufacturing Sdn Bhd (NAM) calling it as an isolated case. MAI chief executive officer Madani Sahari told Business Times,“The industry is still recruiting. In fact, MAI is working to train new workers for Perodua, GO Auto and other automotive companies.”

Around two weeks ago Naza Automotive Manufacturing (NAM) laid off 255 workers at its plant in Gurun, Kedah, which received a lot of criticism and a negative remark for the manufacturing companies. The company previously had 601 workers. Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed, International Trade and Industry Minister,said last Friday that, “The retrenchment is not a big issue in Malaysia, unlike during the 1997/1998 financial crisis, when nearly 100,000 workers were retrenched.”

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He further added that the total industry volume (TIV) for 2015 is expected to achieve a total sales of 670,000 which should be stable compared to last year’s TIV which was 666,465 units, despite a 3.2 percent decline in the first seven months. For the first seven months this year, the TIV was 380,830 units, 3.2 percent lower than the 393,409 recorded in the same period last year.

The Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA) also urged the government to offer some incentives to improve enthusiam among the workers and to stimulate the overall economic growth. These steps if takem, will help in alleviating the automotive industry.

Datuk Aishah Ahmad, MAA president said, “The government should try to build up consumer confidence and try to improve the weakening ringgit plus offer other incentives to help the auto industry.” Aishah, however, did not elaborate on the incentives.

Madani also added later that MAI was working with Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade) to increase exports of automotive spare parts, components to the global tier-1 suppliers and remanufacturing parts. According to the reports, last year the market witnessed total exports of automotive components worth almost RM14.5 billion whereas the vehicle exports exceeded the RM1 billion mark for the first time.

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Madani reported that the car sales dropped significantly in April, despite the lower prices, because of the GST implementation. However, the sales displayed an improved growth since June as per the recent reports.

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“The total industry volume has not rebounded completely but we hope the last quarter of 2015 will be better,” he said. However, the local automotive sector has coped with the ringgit depreciation commendably. “Perhaps it is due to the lessons learnt from the 1997/1998 financial crisis,” Madani added.