Maruti cuts vehicle production by over 8% in February

The country's largest car maker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) cut production by over 8 per cent in February on account of subdued demand.

The auto major produced a total of 1,48,959 units, including Super Carry LCV, across its factories last month, down 8.3 per cent from 1,62,524 units produced in the year-ago period, the company said in a regulatory filing.

The production of passenger vehicles, including Alto, Swift, Dzire and Vitara Brezza, declined by 8.4 per cent to 1,47,550 units as compared with 1,61,116 units in February 2018.

However, the production of vans -- Eeco, Omni -- was up by 22.1 per cent to 16,898 units last month as compared with 13,827 units in February 2018. Production of Super Carry LCV was up by just one unit last month.

When contacted, MSI declined to comment on the reasons for taking this production cut.

In January, MSI had reported a total production of 1,83,064 units, up 15.6 per cent from 1,58,396 units produced in January 2018. Production of passenger vehicles rose 14.3 per cent to 1,78,459 units in January as compared with 1,56,168 units in the year-ago period.

In February, MSI had reported a dip of 0.9 per cent in domestic sales at 1,39,100 units as compared with 1,37,900 units in the year ago period.

In January, however, it had reported an increase of 1.1 per cent in its domestic sales at 1,42,150 units as compared with 1,40,600 units in January 2018.

Hit by lower offtake by end customers, passenger vehicles (PV) retail sales declined by 8.25 per cent to 2,15,276 units in February as compared with the same period last year, automobile dealers' body FADA said last week.

The company's installed manufacturing capacity from its two plants in Gurgaon and Manesar stands at 15.5 lakh units per annum. Besides, 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. The third production line at the Gujarat plant would give an additional capacity of 2.5 lakh units per annum to the company.