Maruti Suzuki Cuts Production For 8th Straight Month
Lack of demand for passenger vehicles in the country has forced Maruti Suzuki, the country's largest carmaker, to cut its production for the eighth consecutive month. The company's total vehicle production last month stood at 1,19,337 units against 1,50,497 in October last year.
The production of passenger vehicles was down to 1,17,383 units last month, from 1,48,318 in October 2018. The production of vans nearly halved to 7,661 in October, from 13,817 in the corresponding period a year ago.
The manufacturing of vehicles in the mini-segment came down to 20,985 last month from 34,295 in the corresponding month last year. The segment has models such as Alto, S-Presso, Old WagonR, the company said in regulatory filing on Friday.
In the compact segment, which consists of models such as New WagonR, Celerio, Ignis, Swift, Baleno and Dzire, the number of units produced in October was 64,079, as against 74,167 in the year-ago period.
Production of utility vehicles - Gypsy, Vitara Brezza, Ertiga, XL-6 and S-Cross - stood at 22,736 last month, as against 22,526 in October 2018.
However, in terms of sale, the company did show signs of recovery owing to festival season demand.
Maruti Suzuki sold a total of 1,44,277 vehicles (including OEM sales) in the domestic market last month, marking a growth of 4.5 per cent compared with the corresponding period a year ago.
While sales of mini cars declined, the compact segment clocked a growth of 16 per cent year-on-year.