Austin’s decision to upgrade and expand its manufacturing operations in Indonesia is proving an effective move in supporting its other global manufacturing businesses, from a production capacity and cost perspective.

Austin’s Batam facility underwent a major expansion in early 2023, adding a further 10,000 square metres to its floorspace, and doubling production capacity.

Austin’s refurbishment of its existing Batam operations comprised reviewing and refining production systems to lift efficiency and product quality, particularly for truck trays and underground ore pass and chute assemblies.

The Batam facility is able to manufacture Austin’s entire product range and will be used as a key production and export hub, shipping to customers across the globe. Set up as part of Austin’s hub and spoke strategy, Indonesia is being used to absorb capacity overflow in other major centres in Australia and the US.

Austin CEO and Managing Director, David Singleton, said: “I am really excited by what is happening in Indonesia, where we are seeing strong orders and throughout, which is generating revenue growth. Ultimately, it’s being driven by a great local team that is transforming the business.

“Indonesia is key to our hub and spoke manufacturing under our Austin 2.0 strategy and will be increasingly able to support our operations in Australia, boosting the capabilities in our important Asia Pacific segment, and further afield to the US and eventually EMEA.”

The investment in Batam has paid off with Austin’s FY23 revenue from its Indonesian operations increasing 51% compared to the previous year.

The Batam facility’s production capacity in FY23 increased from 10 truck bodies per month to over 20 units.

Further enhancements to the manufacturing process systems and tools is expected to see the facility produce over 30 truck bodies per month, which will allow it to further extend its manufacturing hub service to Austin’s North and South American business units.

Mr Singleton added: “We’ve already lent on Batam to support our business in Australia with full and partial builds and we are now preparing to support our US business with order overflow.

From Batam, we also have options to ship products at various stages of assembly to meet customer needs and utilise our existing operations and final assembly partnerships.”