KOTA BAHRU (Aug 4): Perusahaan Otomobil Kedua Sdn Bhd (Perodua) has secured semiconductor supply that will last the Malaysian automotive manufacturer until end of this year, said its president and chief executive officer Datuk Seri Zainal Abidin Ahmad.

Perodua, which is targeting to sell a record 247,800 units this year, has also sorted out a plan to ensure a full return of production capacity of its vendor ecosystem by September, having been impacted by worker shortages and logistic issues.

"Rest assured that we have secured semiconductor supply at least until end of this year to proceed with our sales target. We will relook into the [supply situation] come December," he said at a media event for the newly launched Perodua Alza 2022.

On the vendor ecosystem, Zainal Abidin pointed out that while Perodua fully hires local employees, its vendors do hire foreign workers.

To address worker shortages, Perodua itself has sent out its employees to vendors — an example being 40 of them were sent to a body panel stamping vendor company.

Other vendors also shared their supply of workforce as well as other resources including warehousing and parts arrangement to ensure the whole production ecosystem continues to move, he said.

"Of course, with this arrangement we cannot maximise our production efficiency [at 96%-97%]. We are currently at 85%-90% but it is better than if the whole ecosystem stops," he added.

The carmaker expects the current month to see a period of stabilisation through employee training and familiarisation of the arrangement.

The all-new seven-seater, launched on July 20, has seen 39,000 bookings at the end of last month, with the carmaker targeting monthly sales target of 3,000 units. Waiting period currently range between eight to 10 months, although the company expects to shorten it to six months when it optimises the production line sharing with its older model Aruz.

Perodua's aggressive 2022 sales target follows a challenging 2021, which saw sales of 190,291 units. Its previous record sales was 240,341 units in 2019.

Overall, the carmaker has sold 145,689 units between January and July 2022, up 48.7% from 97,945 units in the same period last year. July bookings came in at 24,265 units from orders in the month of July, notwithstanding the sales tax reinstatement on July 1, 2022.

In July, the Malaysia Automotive Association announced an increase in the total industry volume to 630,000 units from a forecast of 600,000 announced in January.