BATU KAWAN, Oct 8 —Leading automotive lighting manufacturer Malaysian Automotive Lighting (MAL) expanded its operations by opening a new RM85 million plant here today but is already planning to invest another RM50 million in next five years.

The German-based automotive lighting manufacturer also hoped to increase its sales turnover from RM365 million per annum to RM574 million within the same period from the increased capacity of the new plant.

“We forecasted an average sale growth rate of 15 per cent per annum as this plant will be out main centre to supply to our main export country, Japan, and the Asia Pacific,” said Automotive Lighting’s China and South East Asia General Manager Sylvain Dubois.

He added that the new plant will replace its old facilities in Bayan Lepas with an increase in production capacity.

“This new plant will increase the production capacity from 1.7 million lighting units per year to 2.2 million components and a further potential increase of up to 2.9 million units per year,” he said in a press conference after the opening of the plant here.

The plant has a workforce of around 1,000 but it will grow by another 50 per cent along with the gradual increase in production capacity while it also boasts of a research and development centre within the facility with over 40 skilled engineers in the centre.

The new plant is set to be the production hub for the entire Asian continent, especially for Japan.

“We don’t only move our facilities here but we have entirely changed our technology so what we have in this new plant are new technology that produces high quality products,” Dubois said.

MAL is also looking to tap into the potential prospects of an average annual growth of 15 per cent in the lighting-related sector in the South East Asian region.

Earlier, in his opening address, Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng noted that MAL recorded zero voluntary severance scheme (VSS) and it also recorded the same number of overtime hours despite the global economic slowdown in 2007 and 2008.

He attributed it to the manufacturer’s well-coordinated sales forecast, thorough headcount and production planning, smooth flow of materials and built-in quality in its products.

MAL is another addition to the fast-growing Batu Kawan industrial area after other international companies such as Bose, Haemonetics and Honda set up their facilities there.

MAL was first set up in Bayan Lepas in 1988 as a Bosch company but in 1999, the Automotive Lighting World Wide became a joint venture company of Magneti Marelli and Bosch before it became fully owned by Magneti Marelli.

From its former shared facility with Bosch in Bayan Lepas, MAL has expanded by taking up Penang Development Corporation’s (PDC) build and lease facility on 13 acres of land in Batu Kawan.

Construction of the new plant started about 10 months ago and MAL began operations at its new plant last month.

The plant here will be producing front headlamps, rear lights and fog lamps and it will also be introducing LED technology.

MAL supplies to Japanese car manufacturers – Honda, Mazda and Suzuki – and other Asean-based car manufacturers including Proton and Perodua in Malaysia, Ford and General Motors in Thailand and Indonesia.