Maruti Suzuki March sales fall 5%

However, sales rise 3% in FY13 to 11,71,434 units

The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India today reported 4.78% decline in its total sales in March at 1,19,937 units from 1,25,952 units in the same month last year.

Indian passenger car makers are reeling under pressure from the slowing economy and high interest costs, which has dampened buyers' sentiments.

For the entire 2012-13 financial year, however, the company's total sales increased by 3.33% to 11,71,434 units from 11,33,695 units in 2011-12, Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) said in a statement.

The rise came on the back of its performance in the utility vehicle segment, which saw an exponential growth after the launch of Ertiga in April 2012. Sales for this segment, which comprises Gypsy and Grand Vitara apart from Ertiga, grew over thousand times to 79,192 in 2012-13, up from 6,525 a year ago period.

"On a year-on-year comparison, yes we are down this March, but on a sequential basis this is the highest sales in the last 12 months. Perhaps the market has bottomed out and we might see little bit of recovery around second quarter this fiscal," MSI Chief Operating Officer (Marketing and Sales) Mayank Pareek.

The company also continued to do well in the compact passenger car segment that offers Swift, Ritz and Estilo. Sales for this segment grew by 8.3% to 2,55,302 units in the year.

Worst performing segment for the company was the mid size and executive car segment that offers SX4 and Kizashi, with sales dropping respectively by 63 and 59% to 6,707 and 188 units.

During the 2012-13 fiscal, MSI's domestic sales increased by 4.44% to 10,51,046 units from 10,06,316 units in the previous fiscal, the company said.

Exports during the year, however, declined by 5.49% to 1,20,388 units from 1,27,379 units in 2011-12, it added.

Total passenger car sales in 2012-13 stood at 8,61,337 units against 8,55,730 units in the previous fiscal, up 0.66%.

In March 2013, the New Delhi-based firm reported its domestic sales at 1,07,890 units, a decrease of 4.29% over 1,12,724 units in March 2012, it added.

MSI's exports last month went down by 8.93% to 12,047 units from 13,228 units in the year-ago period, the company said.

Sales of the company's mini segment cars, including the M800, A-Star, Alto and WagonR, fell by 14.73% to 45,047 units from 52,826 units in March 2012.

In the compact segment (comprising Estilo, Swift and Ritz models), MSI witnessed a 7.33% dip in sales to 25,868 units from 27,913 units in the same month a year ago.

Sales of MSI's DZiRE model increased by 22.05% to 20,078 units from 16,451 units in the corresponding period a year ago.

In addition, MSI's mid-sized sedan SX4's sales slipped by 40.59% to 903 units from 1,520 units in the year-ago month, MSI said.

Luxury sedan Kizashi witnessed no buyer last month compared to sales of 48 units in March 2012, it added.

However, sales of utility vehicles went up by over four-fold to 6,488 units from 1,530 units in the year-ago period.

Sales of vans dipped by 23.56% to 9,506 units from 12,436 units in the same month last year.

MSI's total passenger car sales fell 6.95% to 91,896 units in March from 98,758 units in the same month in previous year, it added.