Maruti demand. Maruti: No impact on sales, output

Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL) has said that there is no impact on its sales or production as of now, even though 1,280 employees are down with Covid-19. The company’s investment plans for capacity expansion will also not change for this year, said RC Bhargava, Chairman.

Speaking to media post the announcement of the fourth quarter and full year (FY21) results, Bhargava said: “In Maruti, around 1,280 active cases exists out of around 30,000 people. But it has not affected the availability of work force for manufacturing and we are maintaining full production lines.” Bhargava added that the eligible employees and their family members will be inoculated free of cost and MSIL has tied up with Gurugram Medical Authorities.

He said that “right now vendors are also supporting us and that’s really what matters to the company to maintain the supply chain.” He said the demand exceeds the supply right now. As Covid-19 is an urban phenomena right now, the demand from rural markets continues at the same level, he added.

“Our dealers at the end of the year had an inventory of 20,000 vehicles whereas they should have had 1.4-1.5 lakh vehicles. We could have sold another 1.2 lakh vehicles last year, provided the vehicles were available. We just didn’t have production capacity. Today, the dealers’ inventories are still at 80,000-90,000 units, which is below what it could be. We have pending orders of around 90,000, which is huge. That is why the third plant of Suzuki Motor Gujarat will help in meeting those demands,” he said.

“Investments are being done as they were planned…there is no particular change in those investments. We have not cut back on our capital budget or put down any such thing.”, Bhargava said. He said that the company also has no plan to temporarily shut its manufacturing plants as, at the moment, the situation is steady.

COMMENT NOW