Maruti Suzuki cuts production by 10% in April

The country’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India on Thursday said it has slashed its vehicle production by around 10% across its factories in April. This is the company’s third consecutive month of taking a production cut. It had also reduced production in February and March this year.

The company produced a total of 1,47,669 units in April, down 9.6% from 163,368 units a year ago, it said in a regulatory filing.

The company cut production of passenger vehicles, including the Alto, Swift and Dzire, by 10.3% to 1,44,702 units compared with 1,61,370 units in April 2018.

Barring utility vehicles, the company reduced production of all other segments, including that of its big selling compact and mini segments, last month.

The company cut production of the compact segment vehicles marginally to 83,411 units last month compared with 83,709 units a year ago.

Maruti also slashed production of compact segment cars by 11.4% to 1,06,184 units in April compared with 1,19,894 units in the corresponding month last year.

Production of utility vehicles witnessed an increase of 8.4% to 24,516 units in April, against 22,607 units in April last year.

In March, Maruti had reported a production cut of 20.9% across its factories. In February, the company had cut production by an over 8% to 1,48,959 units from 1,62,524 units produced in the year-ago month.

Maruti’s installed manufacturing capacity at its two plants in Gurgaon and Manesar stands at 15.5 lakh units per annum. Besides, the Suzuki-owned Hansalpur (Gujarat) plant also has an installed capacity of 2.5 lakh units from the first line.

The second production line has been commissioned at the plant, but is yet to reach its peak capacity of 2.5 lakh units per annum.

Maruti Suzuki chairman RC Bhargava had said last month that historical data shows that demand weakens during the pre-election months and therefore, he does not see a revival in the April-June quarter. “For some reason, customers are postponing their purchases during the election which has hit retail demand,” he had said.

Several other carmakers, including Tata Motors and Toyota, have been adjusting production amidst weak demand since December 2018.

Maruti Suzuki India Limited