Maruti Suzuki May Fall Short Of Its Production Target For FY23, Shashank Srivastava Says
Maruti Suzuki is still counting on an outside chance that is completion of pending orders to achieve its production target, Executive Director Shashank Srivastava says.
Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. may fall short of its production target for the fiscal ending March 31, 2023, but India's largest carmaker is still counting on an outside chance that is completion of pending orders.
That's according to Executive Director Shashank Srivastava who believes that the company's new midsized SUV -- the Grand Vitara -- will play a key role in achieving the production milestone of 20 lakh units.
The Grand Vitara has received 87,953 bookings since launch in September and currently has a pending order of 55,505 units.
"By our current calculation, I think it should be slightly short (of 20 lakh units)," Srivastava told the Press Trust of India in an interview. "It all really depends on how much they are able to produce on these models where we have the pending bookings. So, there is an outside chance to get to 2 million. However, at this moment of time, it looks like falling a little short."
A lot would depend on how the company is able to execute pending bookings, which now stands at 3.75 lakh units, Srivastava said.
In his address to shareholders in Maruti Suzuki's annual report for 2021-22, Chairman RC Bhargava had stated that the company will increase its production and challenge to produce 20 lakh units in the ongoing fiscal with semiconductor supply improving. The company, however, has said that it expects that the chip shortage to impact production in December 2022 more than previous months, and that it was taking all possible measures to minimise impact.
Shift In Strategy
Maruti Suzuki is betting on its SUV portfolio to offset decline in sales of the non-premium hatchbacks, its core segment that declined by 5% year-on-year in FY22 due to rising costs.
The carmaker shipped a total of 13,11,890 units in April-September 2022, compared to 10,10,674 units in the year-ago period. Domestic wholesales stood at 11,39,072 units during the period, as compared to 8,63,032 units a year ago. Sales to Toyota Kirloskar Motor India Pvt. Ltd. were at 46,708 units, as against 31,419 units a year ago.
The company exported 1,72,818 units in the first eight months of the fiscal, as compared to 1,47,642 units in the year-ago period.