Maruti expects Sept sales tally to be its best-ever

INDIA'S LARGEST AUTO CO MAY CLOCK 33% SALES GROWTH; HIND MOTORS TO TAP CONTRACT MANUFACTURING

 MARUTI Suzuki, the country's largest carmaker, is expecting sales to grow 32-33% in September over the yearago period, its chairman said on Thursday, a day ahead of announcing the actual tally.
    Maruti expects to clock higher sales in September, compared to August when its domestic sales rose 32.5% to 92,674 units, an all-time high for a single month. Maruti Suzuki scrip rose 0.7% to close at 1,440.95 at BSE in line with the 30-stock benchmark Sensex.
    Maruti Suzuki chairman RC Bhargava said September could be the company's best month ever and growth could be higher than the consolidated 27% achieved in the first five months
of the current fiscal, beginning April. "The demand is robust but capacity constraint is still pulling us back to achieve even higher sales for the rest of the fiscal," he said.
    The company that remains the largest car seller in India, despite losing market share, has vehicle delivery period of up to six months on most of its popular cars, such as Dzire sedan and Wagon R hatchback, as it is unable to meet demand. Maruti Suzuki is looking to increase its monthly production by 10% to around 1.1 lakh cars from October by tweaking operations at its four existing plants to meet consumer demand, said Mr Bhargava.
    The company expects to sell 12 lakh vehicles (including exports) in the current fiscal, ending March 2011, from the 10.2 lakh clocked in the previous year. Maruti Suzuki is aiming to take its annual manufacturing capacity to 13 lakh cars by March 2012, before its two new plants come into operation at Manesar after 2013-14. The company's total installed capacity would go beyond 17.5 lakh cars in four years, when the two new plants commence operations.
    Although it remains bullish on the domestic market, exports are likely to decline as its largest market Europe is yet to show signs of improvement in demand. Maruti Suzuki's exports declined 18.4% to 12,117 units in August 2010 over the year-ago period. This is partly due to a drop in demand from Nissan Motor which sources Maruti's A-Star model, which is rebranded and sold as Pixo in Europe and other o v e r s e a s markets. Nissan will source around 30,000 units this fiscal, against 51,000 units last year.