Maruti Suzuki India Limited, India’s largest passenger car maker, had put the production on hold at its Gurgaon unit. Besides, the diesel cars of MSIL are also witnessing a slowdown in their demand. The authorised dealers of the auto maker have maintained an inventory of around 1-1.5 month, which happens to be an all time high.
Reportedly, the Gurgaon unit of Maruti Suzuki is the oldest and biggest plant of the car maker. It produces around 1500 to 1800 cars per day, including its best selling models like Alto and WagonR. On March 8, the auto maker told its all employees of Gurgaon plant not to come on March 9. Interestingly, the production unit also remained shut on the consecutive day, Sunday, as a weekly holiday. However, this shut down had not impacted the operations of company’s Manesar plant, which is presently engaged in producing diesel models.
In February 2013, the auto maker recorded a fall of 7.89 per cent in its total sales, amounting at 1,09,567 units against 1,18,949 units delivered in the corresponding period of last year. During the period, the domestic sales of the company stood at 97,955 units with a decline of around 9 per cent over 1,07,653 units delivered in the same tenure of year-ago period. However, the exports of MSIL increased by 2.8 per cent amounting to 11,612 units in February 2013 against 11,296 units shipped in year-ago period.
Interestingly, the demand for company’s small hatchbacks like A-Star, Alto and WagonR reduced by 15.87 per cent amounting to 41,311 units in February 2013 from 49,104 units delivered in same tenure of 2012. In the compact segment, which includes Estilo, Swift and Ritz models, the company marked a fall of 13.9 per cent to 24,021 units over 27,899 units sold in the same month of 2012.
Reportedly, the car maker was forced to shut down its production unit for one day owing to the falling car sales, especially for the petrol models on account of poor consumer confidence and high interest rates. Reportedly, this trend is not new as a number of auto makers are following the same on regular basis.
