Maruti Suzuki Ups Production to Meet Demand

Maruti Suzuki India plans to ramp up its production capacity by addition of 2 Lakh cars in the next two fiscal years. Maruti, which sells every second car in India is getting ready to take advantage of the buoyant small car market.

Currently, Maruti Suzuki manufactures 9 Lakh cars annually to cater to the biggest segment - small cars in India. However, the rising domestic demand and higher export orders are forcing the company to consider hiking it production capacity. It is expected that the production would reach 10 Lakh units in this fiscal year alone. It will be spending nearly Rs 1,800 Crore to develop the capacity.

The move comes at a time when many other manufacturers have stalled their projects due to global recession. Some of them include the Renault-Nissan, Mahindra & Mahindra and Honda Siel Motors.

Maruti Suzuki sold 7.92 Lakh cars in the last 2008-09 fiscal year which combines the domestic sales and those made abroad. Their best selling models are Alto, Wagon R, and Swift, which are also the top-sellers in India. The strategic models Swift and SX4 were the key products that pushed sedan sales in 2008. It recorded the highest sales in April with a 15 percent jump and sale of 71,748 units in one month.

Maruti is also gaining tremendous sales from the rural markets. It has started recruitment of 1,000 marketing and sales executives for the rural dealerships who will help push the products deeper into the segments. After the release of April sales figure the company hopes to increase domestic sales by at least 5 percent.

Apart from India, Maruti Suzuki is also focusing intensely on increasing sales of A-star in European market. The company hopes to sell one Lakh units in Europe. For which exports will increase drastically. Apart from this the company has allocated Rs 9,000 Crore for a new engine plant and new research and development centre, which will be its largest plant outside Japan. It will be manufacturing the new K12 engine in India.

It is launching the Ritz hatchback on May 15. Ritz will be available in with a starting price of Rs 4 Lakh. It has a bold styling with large headlamps and a tall roofline. Maruti Suzuki Ritz is known as Splash in some of the Suzuki markets across the world. When launched, it will be the eighth small car from Suzuki for the Indian car market.

Source: http://www.carazoo.com/newcars/carreview/Maruti_Suzuki/A-star; http://www.carazoo.com/article/0901200901/Top-25-Facts-about-Maruti-and-its--Flagship-Model-M-800?