Perodua Announces a Possibility of Price Rise by Next Year

Kuala Lumpur: Perodua president and CEO Datuk Aminar Rashid Salleh recently announced a possibility of price rise by next year. This news was shared by Aminar at the launch of their book “Dude, That’s My Car!” in Kuala Lumpur. This price rise is due to Perodua's disability to absorb the impact of foreign exchange which is added cost of inputs. Transactions mainly include some major currencies like the US dollar and Japanese yen, but due to ringgit’s weak performance against them, the company has to suffer a lot. According to Bank Negara figures, recently ringgit closed at 4.2115 to the greenback and 3.4350 to 100 Japanese yen.

Read Also: Perodua Starts Building it's Own Vehicle

Aminar said, “Until it’s impossible to absorb, there is a possibility that we may have to increase prices. We have not made a decision yet,” Further, he asked the potential customers to take advantage of the year end deals by Perodua Malaysia and said “ Jangan tunggu, datang sekarang. Tahun depan tak tentu lagi.”

Read Also: Perodua plans to go on retail with its Pre-Owned Vehicles (POV) in 2016

The company stressed the element of social responsibility as a national automaker, but also urged the need of profits for a company that has shareholders. Earlier in September, Tan Sri Asmat Kamaludin, group chairman of Perodua stakeholder UMW Holdings, said that although the cost for imported cars and components have increased, the current car prices would remain same as long as companies can take it. “We have been impacted. To give you figures, it’s 2 to 3% of our bottom line [profit before tax> two to three months ago; now it’s 5%,” he said.

Feature Graphics Courtsey: Dayang Norazhar/TMR