INGRESS Corp Bhd, with its automotive manufacturing outfit strategically located in three Asean countries, stands to benefit tremendously from the opening of markets under the Asean Free Trade Area (Afta) in 2005. 

Having successfully operated from its home base in the past 10 years, Ingress, through its automotive components manufacturing (ACM) division, has in recent years set up an operating plant in neighbouring Thailand and would be launching its Indonesian operations next year. 

Ingress Technologies plant in Bukit Beruntung.

“We have been in the business for more than 10 years and have created a niche in the industry. We will continue to focus on regional markets, which will ensure our medium- to long-term growth,” he said. 

Established in 1991, Ingress was mainly producing mouldings and door sash for Perusahaan Otomobil Nasional Bhd (Proton) and Perusahaan Otomobil Kedua Sdn Bhd (Perodua) in the early days. 

It currently operates three plants in Malaysia – in Nilai, Negri Sembilan, where mouldings are produced; Bukit Beruntung, Selangor where it is concentrating on Perodua components and in Bangi, Selangor. 

Rameli Musa . . . basic focus on new customers and markets.

Having strengthened its position in the local market, it then moved to Thailand when it launched Ingress Autoventures Co Ltd (IAV), a joint venture with Japan-based Katayama Kogyo Ltd, to produce automotive parts for the local market. 

“We had wanted to go to Indonesia first but it did not materialise for some reasons. It was a good thing as Indonesia was badly hit during the currency crisis while Thailand's motor industry has advanced quite well since then,” Rameli said. 

In Indonesia, Ingress has formed a joint venture with local partner Herman Zaini Latif to form PT Ingress Malindo Ventures. 

“We are confident of Indonesia and its sheer population holds a promising future for the auto industry,” said Rameli.  

To stay ahead of competition, he said Ingress had drawn up a number of strategies and implementing some of it in stages. 

“We basically focus on two aspects: new customers and new markets,” he said.  

Ingress recently achieved a major breakthrough when it secured a deal with Toyota, a coveted customer and a major global player in the automotive industry, to supply components for Malaysian assembly. 

The contract will initially involve the supply of 24 moulding parts, involving 20,000 vehicle sets with estimated revenue of RM1.2mil per annum. Investment cost will be RM1.5mil and target date for supply is in May next year. 

“We are quite happy with the deal as it marks our first cooperation with the global giant,” Rameli said. 

Rameli and other board members were equally excited with the recent letter of intent (LOI) from Perodua to supply stamping parts for the auto company's D73A project. 

The D73A is a new Perodua model with an engine capacity of up to 1.3 litres targeted at the Asian market and Australia.  

“The potential of the D73A is tremendous and would guarantee Ingress a revenue of RM40mil per annum based on the LOI's 55,000 car sets,” he said. 

Supply for the D73A would commence in July 2005 and would include high value items such as cross-member. 

Another high value contract from Perodua is the production of the Kelisa door-in-white with production expected to commence in October next year. The investment cost will be RM28mil and total production will be 48,000 sets per annum. 

In Indonesia, Ingress has already secured contracts from Suzuki and Mitsubishi through PT Ingress Malindo Ventures, which is scheduled to start operating early next year. 

The contracts are to supply mouldings and sash with estimated full year production volume of 36,000 and 80,000 car sets per annum for both Mitsubishi and Suzuki respectively. 

Production for Mitsubishi will start in February next year and in July for Suzuki. Combined revenue is expected at RM15mil beginning financial year ending Jan 31, 2006. 

Ingress is equally aggressive in Thailand, with generous contracts from Honda and the latest being a contract to supply sash to Mitsubishi's P car scheduled to start production in July 2005. 

IAV has secured contracts to supply 85,000 sets of sash for Honda City, 22,000 sets of mouldings for Honda Accord and an initial 5,000 sets of sash for Honda Jazz, and later to 25,000 sets in financial year 2005. 

“As for Mitsubishi, we were just doing mouldings and this contract for sash is a major coup for us as we won the bid against other local competition,” said Rameli. 

Production of sash for the P car is expected to reach a volume of 120,000 car sets in financial year Jan 31, 2007. 

Rameli said the strategy to move into the three Asean countries would put Ingress on a strong footing to take advantage of the strong demand of cars expected with the introduction of Afta. 

In Thailand for instance, production of vehicles is expected to cross the one million mark in 2007, two years after Afta, with 600,000 for local consumption and the remaining for exports. 

The market in Indonesia was equally impressive and too large to be ignored, said Rameli. 

Projection showed that Indonesian production would increase from the current 390,000 to 525,000 with local consumption constituting 450,000 of the total. 

As for the Malaysian market, Rameli said the industry could not make any projections as the much talked about sales and duty structure had not been finalised.  

“We are quite confident of making it big with Afta,” he added.  

Rameli said other than the three countries, Ingress was also keeping an eye open for any opportunities in countries where its major client, Proton, was moving into. 

“Proton is paving the way in Iran but things are still at a preliminary stage there. China is a complex market and India is still not a priority for now,” he said.