Mitsubishi to help Pragati make own brand

[The Ronin]

Japanese automaker giant Mitsubishi Motors Corporation will assist the country’s Pragati Industries Limited for manufacturing own brand vehicles.

The Mitsubishi Motors is also interested to manufacturer the buses, trucks, pick-ups and motor cars jointly with the state-run Pragati Industries.

Vice-President of Mitsu-bishi Motors Corporation Tatsuo Sato gave the proposal while holding a meeting with the Industries Minister Nurul Majid Mahmud Humayun at the industries ministry yesterday, said a Ministry press release.

The meeting was discussed about forming an integrated automobile policy for Bangladesh apart from the probable investment from the Mitsubishi Corporation in the country’s automobile sector.

The Mitsubishi delegation noted that the automobile sector in Bangladesh posses a bright potential and it is possible to expand the backward linkage industries in this sector as well as import-substitute vehicle manufacturing apart from generating more employments.

They also stressed the need for formulating an integrated and investment-friendly automobile industrial policy for wooing more investment from abroad.

The Mitsubishi delegation expressed their interest to manufacturer more new vehicles in partnership with Pragati apart from the existing vehicle model named Pajero Sports CR-45 and L-200 microbus.

Speaking on the occasion, Industries Minister said the government has already framed the draft of automobile industrial policy and suggested that the Mitsubishi delegation to submit their opinion (if any) on this policy.

Pragoti Industries Limited is a Bangladeshi state owned car assembling and car parts manufacturing company, under Bangladesh Steel and Engineering Corporation. Headquartered in Chattogram, it is country's largest car assembling plant and it has assembled and marketed more than 50,000 vehicles

such as cars, Jeeps, Buses, Trucks, Pickups, Ambulances, Tractors of multiple models by importing CKD (Complete Knocked Down ) kits from overseas since its founding year, 1966.

http://www.theindependentbd.com/pri...sJpXNHDWwB45yzhwsou1ULAo_lGudyxNdZe1eN8qGj9-8

 

[Bilal9]

Well I see Mitsubishi's offer clearly now.

They want the govt. to invest in vehicle production (National Car) like Mahathir started Proton Berhad.

However - I don't see govt. taking the bait. Unless of course there is money in it for Obaidul Quader and Hasina.

Plus we already saw what happened in India in the vehicle assembly/export sector in the past six months.

Maybe @jamahir Bhai can ask some of his Indian vehicle expert friends to talk about this.

 

[mb444]

Well I see Mitsubishi's offer clearly now.

They want the govt. to invest in vehicle production (National Car) like Mahathir started Proton Berhad.

However - I don't see govt. taking the bait. Unless of course there is money in it for Obaidul Quader and Hasina.

Plus we already saw what happened in India in the vehicle assembly/export sector in the past six months.

Maybe @jamahir Bhai can ask some of his Indian vehicle expert friends to talk about this.

BD public sector probably buys several thousand cars per year if not 10's of thousands of car. Can the government not use this demand as the basis of starting a national brand? Yes it may be costly and it may also not provide the best cars but it would create a new sector for our country, likely to open ways for more entrants in to the sector, create economic opportunities in supporting industries etc.

I fundamentally believe that given the size of BD population our economy needs to be balanced accross economic sectors. Any new manufacturing opportunity should be explored.

 

[UKBengali]

BD public sector probably buys several thousand cars per year if not 10's of thousands of car. Can the government not use this demand as the basis of starting a national brand? Yes it may be costly and it may also not provide the best cars but it would create a new sector for our country, likely to open ways for more entrants in to the sector, create economic opportunities in supporting industries etc.

I fundamentally believe that given the size of BD population our economy needs to be balanced accross economic sectors. Any new manufacturing opportunity should be explored.

No, no, no..

BD is far too densely populated to encourage mass car ownership.

By all means develop public transportation sectors like trains, metro etc but never cars.

 

[TopCat]

No, no, no..

BD is far too densely populated to encourage mass car ownership.

By all means develop public transportation sectors like trains, metro etc but never cars.

How can you have metros in the villages? They eventually will want a car and they will have.

 

[UKBengali]

How can you have metros in the villages? They eventually will want a car and they will have.

Most people will eventually end up living in cities and towns when BD is a developed country.

Those few remaining in villages can be served by buses.

BD is far too densely populated to even think about mass car ownership.

 

[mb444]

No, no, no..

BD is far too densely populated to encourage mass car ownership.

By all means develop public transportation sectors like trains, metro etc but never cars.

Car ownership is not the issue but rather polution from fossil fuel.

Ultimately people will want personal transport. This may not actually mean cars owned by each family. With the advent of things like uber and autonomous driving car ownership is maybe a thing of the past.

In a bangladesh context we can look at electric cars from get-go.

Public transports are great but they are not a total solution.

 

[jamahir]

Maybe @jamahir Bhai can ask some of his Indian vehicle expert friends to talk about this.

Sorry bhai, I don't have any vehicle expert as friend.

 

[UKBengali]

Car ownership is not the issue but rather polution from fossil fuel.

Ultimately people will want personal transport. This may not actually mean cars owned by each family. With the advent of things like uber and autonomous driving car ownership is maybe a thing of the past.

In a bangladesh context we can look at electric cars from get-go.

Public transports are great but they are not a total solution.

It is a space issue.
The land is not there to build the roads to allow any appreciable levels of car ownership.

 

[mb444]

It is a space issue.
The land is not there to build the roads to allow any appreciable levels of car ownership.

Well outside of metropolitan areas the roads are clear in my experience. Perhaps there is room for growth within existing infastructure.

A solution definately needs to planned for. As wages increase demand for personal transport will too.

 

[Doctor Strange]

No, no, no..

BD is far too densely populated to encourage mass car ownership.

By all means develop public transportation sectors like trains, metro etc but never cars.

We are operating multiple cars since 90s. Hardly any one having personal cars there in the South West city. If there is Gas supply available like in Dhaka, people will buy cars en masse.

 

[Bilal9]

Sorry bhai, I don't have any vehicle expert as friend.

I was talking about @KapitaanAli bhai....

BD public sector probably buys several thousand cars per year if not 10's of thousands of car. Can the government not use this demand as the basis of starting a national brand? Yes it may be costly and it may also not provide the best cars but it would create a new sector for our country, likely to open ways for more entrants in to the sector, create economic opportunities in supporting industries etc.

I fundamentally believe that given the size of BD population our economy needs to be balanced accross economic sectors. Any new manufacturing opportunity should be explored.

There are three stages of auto industry.

1. Semi-knocked-down (SKD) kit assembly from larger assembled blocks of components
2. Complete-knocked-down (CKD) kit assembly from lower level unassembled blocks of components
3. Assembly of in-house vendor-supplied items from the ground up (seats, instrument panels, body panels welded).

I don't know the number of SKD versus CKD versus ground up assembly in our neighboring countries (India/Thailand) or Pakistan. That would give some clue...

I have tagged @KapitaanAli bhai maybe he can supply India stats.

Proton and Mahindra supplies CKD kits small scale assembly for PHP in Chittagong for example.

 

[KapitaanAli]

In India, most (and only) luxury cars are CKD. That'd make about 40k-45k units annually. We've to also count brands like Volvo and Mini although not exactly luxury.

SKD cars are rare in India if I'm correct. It's either CKD or CBU for higher end cars.

Bikes are a whole different discussion and a bit more irregular. A top end ZX-10R is CKD but a lower end CB300R is CBU (soon to be CKD). Ninja300 is made in India but a similar R3 is CKD. We're in a transformational period in biking.

 

[Bilal9]

In India, most (and only) luxury cars are CKD. That'd make about 40k-45k units annually. We've to also count brands like Volvo and Mini although not exactly luxury.

SKD cars are rare in India if I'm correct. It's either CKD or CBU for higher end cars.

Bikes are a whole different discussion and a bit more irregular. A top end ZX-10R is CKD but a lower end CB300R is CBU (soon to be CKD). Ninja300 is made in India but a similar R3 is CKD. We're in a transformational period in biking.

This is just to find out about the state of things in India at present, obviously things in Bangladesh are not comparable and still at a very nascent stage.

Demand is much hotter on the motorbike side and much more tepid on the automobile side, given lukewarm demand. In other words where India was say fifteen years ago, after lower-middle class Indians moved up from public transports to use their own two-wheeler rides.

Given the recent slowdown in Indian auto-manufacturing sector (with quite a few layoffs across the board) - this has raised questions on job and employment volatility in this sector. There should be lessons on this, which are much more applicable to smaller countries like Bangladesh because we do not possess a robust home-market like India to provide cushion for auto demand downturns.

What I understand is that in India there were downturns in both local and export demand...