Maruti Suzuki cuts vehicle production by around 21% to 1.36 lakh units in March on subdued demand

New Delhi: The country’s largest car maker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) cut vehicle production by around 21 percent across its factories in March due to subdued demand. The auto major produced a total of 1,36,201 units in March, including Super Carry LCV, down 20.9 percent from 1,72,195 units in the year-ago period, it said in a regulatory filing. The production of passenger vehicles, including Alto, Swift, Dzire and Vitara Brezza, declined by 20.6 percent to 1,35,236 units as compared with 1,70,328 units in March 2018. [caption id=“attachment_5037561” align=“alignleft” width=“385”] Representational image. Reuters.[/caption] Barring vans, the company reduced production of all other segments including that of its big selling compact and utility segments. The compact segment saw 7.5 percent decline in production to 81,163 units, while utility vehicle witnessed a drop of 26.4 percent to 17,719 units in March. However, production of vans rose by 6 percent to 15,710 units last month as compared with 14,822 units in March 2018. When contacted, MSI declined to comment on the reason for decrease in production. In February, MSI had cut production by over 8 percent to 1,48,959 units from 1,62,524 units produced in the year-ago period. In January, the company had reported a total production of 1,83,064 units, up 15.6 percent from 1,58,396 units produced in January 2018. MSI’s installed manufacturing capacity at its two plants in Gurgaon and Manesar stands at 15.5 lakh units per annum. Besides, the Suzuki-owned Hansalpur (Gujarat) plant also has an installed capacity of 2.5 lakh units from the first line. The second production line has been commissioned at the plant, but is yet to reach its peak capacity of 2.5 lakh units per annum.