Maruti to limit exports, focus on domestic market

Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL), the country's largest car maker is mulling over to limit its exports to 15 per cent, in a bid to catch up with the boosting demand in the domestic market. The company is currently struggling with the rising waiting period for its popular cars in the Indian market. The waiting period for some of the most popular Maruti cars like Swift Dzire has reached up to three months in many cities of the country. It is to be mentioned here that Maruti's market share has been slipped below 50 % during this fiscal for the first time since it started its operations in the Indian market more than 2 decades back.

Mr R C Bhargava, Chairman at MSIL, wrote to shareholders in its fiscal year 2009-10's annual report that Maruti Suzuki as a company should perhaps deliberately not attempt to export a large part of its production, but keep its exports to about 15 per cent of output. He added that the company should concentrate more on the domestic market. Not only should it adequately increase manufacturing capacity to keep its market share, but also remain very aware of the changing customer tastes and demands and be flexible in making quick adjustments. The company's total export figures stood at 50,558 units during the period of April-July this year, which was infact about 15 per of the total 3,35,394 units produced during the period. With this, the total exports of the company during fiscal year 2009-10 stood at 1.48 lakh units. The company currently operates at two plants in the Indian market - Gurgaon and Manesar. The total annual manufacturing capacity of the company is about 10 lakh units. The company has also increased its total spending on R&D to Rs 173.3 crore in 2009-10 as compared to mere Rs 91 crore in 2008-09.

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