BYD Stop Importing Cars into Indonesia - by Calvin WEE from LinkedIn

They stopped importing because their $670 million factory in West Java is coming online. 150,000 units a year, 18,000 jobs, full local production.

BYD  is relocating an entire manufacturing ecosystem into ASEAN — factory, supply chain, R&D centre, training facilities. 

Indonesia isn't a sales market for them. It's a production base.

And this is the part that matters for Singapore:

When a Chinese manufacturer builds a 150,000-unit factory in Indonesia, they don't just bring the assembly line. They create an industrial gravitational pull that reshapes how capital, talent, and technology flow through the region.

Singapore is not part of that gravitational pull. We don't make things. We finance them, advise on them, and trade them. That's fine — as long as we understand the ecosystems we're financing.

But here's the question I keep asking in client meetings and getting no answer to: if you're managing a portfolio with ASEAN exposure, can you explain BYD's Indonesia strategy? Do you understand why they chose Karawang, and what that signals about Indonesia's industrial policy?

If not, you're advising on a region you don't fully understand. And your clients will eventually notice.

China's ASEAN manufacturing strategy is the single most important structural shift in regional capital flows this decade. 

Singapore professionals, especially those in wealth management and advisory, need to understand it at a level deeper than "China is investing in Southeast Asia."

The specifics matter. The factory locations matter. The supply chain architecture matters. The regulatory incentives matter. 

And right now, not enough people in Singapore's financial sector is paying attention to any of it.