Maruti sales shrink 13.9% in June, hit by vendor plant fire

Hit by a fire incident at one of its key vendors, the country’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) today reported 13.9 per cent drop in total sales in June at 98,840 units as against 1,14,756 in June 2015. The company’s domestic sales also tumbled 10.2 per cent during the month to 92,133 units as against 1,02,626 in June 2015.

Sales of mini segment cars, including Alto and WagonR, declined by 19.3 per cent to 27,712 units compared with 34,336 in the year-ago month, MSI said in a statement.

The company said sales of the compact segment comprising Swift, Estilo, Ritz, Dzire and Baleno too slid 12.5 per cent to 39,971 units in June as against 45,701 units a year ago.

Sales volume for compact sedan Dzire Tour came in at 2,068 units in June, down 28.5 per cent year on year. Mid-sized sedan Ciaz met with the same fate, whose sales fell 24.3 per cent to 2,800 units during the month.

In contrast, sales of utility vehicles, including Gypsy, Grand Vitara, Ertiga, S-Cross and compact SUV Vitara Brezza, went into top gear, surging 75.5 per cent to 9,708 units in June from a year earlier. Sales of vans—Omni and Eeco—declined 5.6 per cent to 9,874 units in the said period.

Exports during the month came down by 44.7 per cent to 6,707 units as against 12,130 in June last year, MSI said. For the April-June quarter, the company said its total sales rose 2.1 per cent to 3,48,443 units from a year ago.

During the quarter, the company said its domestic sales rose 5.4 per cent to 3,22,340 units as against 3,05,694 units in the same period of 2015-16.

“The growth in sales in the quarter is despite the disruption in production during June 2016, due to the unfortunate incident of fire at Subros, a key vendor of the company. The company expects to recover the production loss during the course of the year,” MSI said.

The company together with its vendors is stepping up production of newly launched models Baleno and Brezza to service the pending demand.