Maruti Suzuki Scales Down Production of Cars, Blames Slow Demand

The car industry in India has been facing a slump in sales since the past few months and things have been going a bit slow for the manufacturers in the country. This has now come to the light in even more prominence as India’s largest automaker’s regulatory filing has revealed that the company Maruti Suzuki has scaled down their unit production. The numbers in the latest filing by Maruti Suzuki India Limited state the in the month of March 2019 the company manufactured 1.36 lakh units of cars in India. Contrast this to the production numbers of March 2018 wherein the company produced 1.71 lakh units, and one can see that in a year the company has scaled down production by around 20 percent, which is a major decline. As per the company the low demand from the market has been responsible for the cut down.

The car industry has been facing a minor decline lately as the economy has not been on the same track it was a few years ago. With the start of general elections in the country just a few days away, the immediate months do not look too goof either as the customers generally tend to avoid making purchases during the period. However, the new government after the elections will look into the economy and the makers can expect better sales in the subsequent months.

As of now, the largest auto maker of India has the capacity to produce around 18 lakh units of cars annually. Out of the total 18 lakh units, the Haryana plants of Manesar and Gurgaon produce nearly 15.5 lakhs units and the newly setup Guajarati factory in Hansalpur has a capacity of 2.5  lakh units. With another factory in Gujarat’s Sanand that will soon be ready to produce nearly 2.5 lakh more units, the company’s overall production capacity is bound to go up. While the company is the largest car seller in India and sells a majority of cars it produces in India in the domestic market itself, it also exports quite a few cars. As the sales in the domestic market see a downward trajectory, the company will surely increase the exports in order to patch up the slow demand at home.

With the recent slowdown in sales, the company and its authorized dealerships have also been offering lucrative offers on almost their entire line-up of models in order to attract more customers. The discounts are aimed at reducing the inventory pile-up that has happened due to the sluggish sales in the market. As of now, the company is also working on updating all their models as per the upcoming BS-VI emission norms that are set to be enforced from the fourth month of 2020. However, it is not just Maruti Suzuki, other makers too may soon cut their production if the sales do not pick up quickly enough.