Magneti Marelli targets ASEAN,opens new automotive lighting plant in Malaysia

October 8, 2013: Magneti Marelli Automotive Lighting has set up a new plant for production of headlamps and rear lights for the automotive sector in Batu Kawan, in the Malaysian state of Penang.

The plant, spread over 56,600 square metres, replaces the facilities in Bayan Lepas with a significant increase in the production capacity, which will go from 1.7 million lighting units per year to 2.2 million components, with a potential further increase up to 2.9 million units per year.

The company says the plant is equipped with cutting-edge machinery and production technologies to deliver the highest technical-qualitative standards capable of satisfying the needs of the premium automotive segment.

Magneti Marelli is among the many suppliers focussing on the ASEAN market which is becoming increasingly important both for the countries therein and as a production hub aimed at the entire Asian continent, Japan in particular.

The Malaysian plant will produce headlamps, rear lights and fog lamps and also introduce LED technology. Production will be aimed at the Japanese carmakers (Honda, Mazda and Suzuki) and at carmakers belonging to the ASEAN area (Proton and Perodua in Malaysia, Ford and GM in Thailand and Indonesia).

“In the changed scenarios of the global automotive market,” said Eugenio Razelli, Magneti Marelli’s CEO, “a very interesting production and market entity such as the ASEAN area is gaining strength next to China and India. By inaugurating this new industrial facility in Malaysia, Magneti Marelli proves that it is ready to seize the market opportunities of an extremely dynamic context, and to increase its own production and technological capacity in areas with a high growth rate, confirming, in the lighting area as well as in other areas, a significant strategic presence on the entire Asian continent.”