Proton Saga production moving to Tanjung Malim

Proton has commenced the development of a new facility at its Tanjong Malim production site, which will house two new stamping lines, E-line and F-line, as part of the company's strategic plan to increase its parts stamping capacity in preparation for relocating the production of their longest-running model, the Saga, from Shah Alam to Tanjong Malim by 2026.

The project involves a significant investment of RM253 million and will also support the production of any new models Proton plans to introduce in the near future. This expansion follows the inauguration of the D-Line stamping plant in early 2023.

By establishing these new stamping lines, Proton aims to reduce its dependency on imported parts, thereby bolstering the local supply chain and safeguarding against potential global trade disruptions.

The consolidation of production at Tanjong Malim has quite a long time coming, anticipated since the 2017 agreement between DRB-Hicom and Zhejiang Geely, in which the Chinese company acquired a 49.9% equity stake in Proton, was inked.

At that time, it was disclosed that Proton would fully relocate its Shah Alam operations to Tanjong Malim within five years, though a certain worldwide health crisis clearly threw a monkey wrench into those plans and delaying it.

The upcoming E-Line will feature a sophisticated four-stage stamping process, equipped with a 1,600-tonne stamping machine and three 800-tonne machines. Meanwhile, the F-Line will employ a five-stage stamping process, utilising a range of powerful stamping machines including a 2000-tonne, a 1200-tonne, and three 1000-tonne units.

These new lines will also incorporate advanced robotics to transfer parts between workstations, with Industry 4.0 technology providing real-time data and machine learning capabilities to enhance the quality of the parts produced.

Li Chunrong, CEO of Proton, said: “The addition of the parts stamping E- and F-Line are critical to Proton’s future volume expansion plans as it gives us more flexibility to ramp up our production and meet market demand. For the whole of 2023 and up to June 2024, our Tanjong Malim plant has stamped out 6,067,064 components, of which 395,211 are from the new D-Line, and this number will grow exponentially when production for the Proton Saga is relocated here in 2026,”

“As Proton moves towards consolidating our production operations in Tanjong Malim, we continue to work towards increasing our local parts sourcing. Aside from cost and parts security considerations, we continue to champion the government’s aim to grow local participation in the automotive industry via job creation on multiple levels,” he added.