National carmaker Proton expects its exports to have doubled in the past year and plans to tap new markets in southern Europe, Asia and the Middle East, a report said today.

Proton expects figures to show that it sold 16,000 units abroad in the financial year ending March 2005, chief executive Mahaleel Ariff told Bernama news agency.

Exports had been running at around 6,000 to 7,000 units annually, making up less than five percent of Proton's total sales.

The carmaker's renewed bid to boost exports, partly to counter flagging domestic sales due to growing foreign competition in the face of market liberalisation, will be driven by its new line-up of improved models, Mahaleel said.

It is scheduled to introduce replacement models for its existing Tiara and Satria cars later this year, while a sports car is also in the offing.

Mahaleel said Proton's latest model Gen-2 was well-received in Britain, while its Arena model topped sales for single cabin pick-ups in Australia.

The company plans to expand to southern Europe, especially Mediterranean countries, via its British marketing arm and is seriously eyeing markets in Indonesia, Iran and other Middle East nations, he said.

Mahaleel said Proton had been criticised for its weak exports but noted the company only took over control of direct exports from 1998 and had since instituted changes. Exports were previously handled by a subsidiary firm.

Dead stock

He said a record 27,000 units exported in 1997/98 were not actual sales but merely shipments to Britain, Australia and Germany with huge subsidies thrown in for the cars.

"Of the 27,000 shipped out, 13,000 were sold in those markets and the rest were dead stock. When we took over in 1998, it took us three years to clear those stocks," he said.

"We have recovered our losses (from exports). We made money. Now we are on a much stronger footing and no longer subsidising (consumers in) the rich countries."

Mahaleel said the Wira model would be assembled in Indonesia from May or June onwards for use as taxis, before the Gen-2 and Arena models were introduced later.

He said the Indonesian plant would play a key role in Proton's regional expansion as cars produced there would be exported to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) such as the Philippines and Thailand to take advantage of lower tariffs under a regional free trade pact.

Proton used to sell six out of every 10 new cars in Malaysia but growing foreign competition is eating into its market share which fell to 44 percent last year from 48 percent in 2003.