Maruti expects 15% sales growth this fiscal

The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) today said it expects its sales growth to moderate to around 15% this fiscal from nearly 25% last fiscal.

"We are looking at 12-15% growth during this fiscal, both for the company and the industry," MSI Chairman RC Bhargava told reporters here on the sidelines of a summit by International Centre for Automotive Technology (ICAT).

MSI's total sales soared 24.81% to 12,71,005 units in 2010-11 from 10,18,365 units in the previous fiscal. The domestic sales increased by 30.08% to 11,32,739 from 8,70,790 units in 2009-10.

"I don't think, we will continue at 26-27% growth rate in this fiscal. We cannot have such as high growth rate every year," Bhargava said.

The company had reported its highest ever monthly sales in March at 1,21,952 units compared to 95,123 units in the same month last year, a jump of 28.20%.

When asked about the progress made in construction of its second manufacturing unit inside the Manesar facility, Bhargava said: "We are trying to cut short some steps to commission the plant as early as possible. We will try to open it around September this year. It may not be the entire plant, but some portion of it."

The company had announced an investment of over Rs 3,625 crore to set up two new plants with 2.5 lakh annual capacities each inside the Manesar facility.

At present, MSI, which is 54.2% owned by Suzuki, has an annual capacity of 8.5 lakh units at its Gurgaon plant, while Manesar can produce 3.5 lakh units annually, with the overall capacity totaling to 12 lakh units per year.

The carmaker had said it ramped up production by about 10% to over 1.1 lakh units every month from October last year, taking its total annual output to 14 lakh units in 2011-12.