Maruti Suzuki beats parent Suzuki in production figures during 2009

Maruti Suzuki is now renowned for creating one milestone after another. Of late, India's leading passenger carmaker has managed to overtake its Japanese parent company- Suzuki Motor Corporation- in overall production during 2009.  Last year, while Maruti Suzuki rolled out 966,399 units, its parent Suzuki Motor Corporation produced only 908,302 cars. Out of the total sales in 2009, Maruti Suzuki sold 836,893 units in the domestic market, with the remaining 130,688 units being exported in various nations, with A-Star accounting for a sizeable chunk of them. In the domestic market, its Alto ruled the sales charts with 2.4 lakh units, followed by the WagonR with sales of 1.4 lakh units during reporting period. Maruti Suzuki, which has more than 60 per cent share of the compact car market - the largest segment in India -, is seeing huge demand for some specific models. 

  

It was reported pretty recently that Maruti Suzuki has decided to expand capacity at its Manesar plant to 250,000 units per annum by 2012, for which it plans to invest Rs 1,700 crore. The country's largest carmaker, Maruti Suzuki, announced on Saturday that it would invest Rs 1,700 crore in a second line at its Manesar factory.  The company's second line at Manesar is expected to take the total capacity of the Manesar plant to 5.5 lakh units a year. The company's other plant at Gurgaon has an installed capacity of seven lakh units a year.

 

Speaking to a business daily, R. C. Bhargava, chairman of Maruti Suzuki, said the new line would mainly focus on compact cars, for which the demand is exceedingly high. He was quoted as saying,  "The new line would mainly manufacture compact cars such as the Swift and the Ritz and not sedans, for which you need different equipments and space. The investment on the plant is being internally funded."

 

The decision for capacity expansion has been taken by the company owing to the phenomenal huge growth posted by Indian car industry last year and the arrival of small cars by its competitors like Toyota, Honda, VW, Ford, Nissan, etc.