Maruti Suzuki India expects lower growth in second half of fiscal

Maruti Suzuki, country's largest carmaker has told that it is expecting its sales momentum to slow down during the second half of the fiscal 2010-11 in comparison to over 25 per cent growth that has been achieved till now in this fiscal. Shashank Srivastava,  Maruti Suzuki India Chief General Manager (Marketing) was quoted saying that growth achieved so far will be tough to maintain. In second half, growth will be moderate compared to the first half. However, Srivastava denied to put any sales number for future. Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) has recorded a jump of 25.5 per cent at 4,88,972 units during the period of April-August as against 3,89,611 units in the same period last fiscal. Srivastava said that one of the main reasons for low growth in rest of the fiscal will be high base effect of last year. In the second half of last fiscal, the market became very strong. He also added that the high inflationary pressure may cause a dent on sales growth of MSI.

Srivastava also expressed his concern over inflation and said that it may lead to increase in interest rates for car loans and sales may be affected eventually. The company is monitoring it cautiously, he added. Though Maruti Suzuki India is expecting a lower growth on one hand but on the other, it is also hopeful for selling same number of units every month that it has been doing so far. In the month of August, MSI has reported its highest ever monthly sales at 1,04,791 units. Srivastava also told the reason why MSI is losing customers to its rivals. He said that the reason is the very high waiting period of some of the company’s cars.

MSI’s market share went down because it could not supply. It  had production constraints,he added. It is to be mentioned here that the hatchback Swift and Ritz models of the company have 3-4 months and 1-2 months of waiting period respectively. The customers are queuing for 4-5 months for owning sedan DZiRE and MSI is taking about 5 months to deliver the multi-purpose vehicle Eeco. For the first time, the company, MSI (Maruti Suzuki india) has seen its market share falling below 50 per cent in its history, this fiscal. According to SIAM (Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers), the market leader sold 3,60,839 cars during the April-August period this fiscal, representing a 47.91 per cent share in the overall 7,53,199 units market. In comparison to this, MSI had a 52.94 per cent share in the 5,60,750 units car market, with sales of 2,96,839 units in an year-ago period,.