Maruti Expects Car Exports To Fall This Year

Published: Thursday, April 5, 2012, 17:55 [IST]

Maruti Suzuki, India's largest carmaker is expecting its performance in the international markets to remain stagnant or even decline this fiscal year. The carmaker believes the global markets have not yet recovered from the economic down turn.

Maruti Suzuki's exports during the fiscal year ending March 2011 stood at 1,27,379 units registering a 7.9% decline compared to the year 2010. Maruti Suzuki India chairman RC Bhargava has stated that he does not expect a huge improvement in exports. In fact he is expecting a slight decline in exports as he considers global markets to be still sluggish.

Maruti Suzuki exports its cars to markets such as Europe, South America, South East Asia and the Middle East. Most of these regions are still under the cloud of economic uncertainty. This does not mean Maruti Suzuki's sales will be in the red. In fact the carmaker is expecting a 10% jump in sales for the fiscal year 2011-12 as it is expecting its domestic sales to increase considerably.

Maruti Suzuki is pushing up its diesel car production in response to increased demand from Indian car buyers. This is expected to yield better result this fiscal year than the previous one. Let us remind the readers that Maruti suffered three long strikes at its Manesar plant that severely affected car production.

Maruti Suzuki's exports are not a major chunk of its sales when compared to other carmakers such as Hyundai and Nissan. Hyundai is the largest car exporter in India followed by Nissan. These two carmakers build their cars in India due to lower production costs.