Maruti Suzuki cuts production by 21% in March on subdued demand

The country's largest car maker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) cut vehicle production by around 21 per cent across its factories in March due to subdued demand.

The auto major produced a total of 1,36,201 units in March, including Super Carry LCV, down 20.9 per cent from 1,72,195 units in the year-ago period, it said in a regulatory filing.

The production of passenger vehicles, including Alto, Swift, Dzire and Vitara Brezza, declined by 20.6 per cent to 1,35,236 units as compared with 1,70,328 units in March 2018.

Barring vans, the company reduced production of all other segments including that of its big selling compact and utility segments.

The compact segment saw 7.5 per cent decline in production to 81,163 units, while utility vehicle witnessed a drop of 26.4 per cent to 17,719 units in March.

However, production of vans rose by 6 per cent to 15,710 units last month as compared with 14,822 units in March 2018.

When contacted, MSI declined to comment on the reason for decrease in production.

In February, MSI had cut production by over 8 per cent to 1,48,959 units from 1,62,524 units produced in the year-ago period.

In January, the company had reported a total production of 1,83,064 units, up 15.6 per cent from 1,58,396 units produced in January 2018.

MSI's installed manufacturing capacity at its two plants in Gurgaon and Manesar stands at 15.5 lakh units per annum. Besides, the Suzuki-owned Hansalpur (Gujarat) plant also has an installed capacity of 2.5 lakh units from the first line.

The second production line has been commissioned at the plant, but is yet to reach its peak capacity of 2.5 lakh units per annum.