Maruti Suzuki, the country’s largest carmaker, cut production by over 8% during the last month, indicating a slowdown in the auto sector. The company is likely to cut production in the current month as well.
In February 2019, the car maker produced 1,48,959 units as against 1,62,524 units in the year-ago period, according to a March 6 filing with the stock exchanges.
For the passenger vehicle segment, the production was down 8.4% to 1,47,550 units from 1,61,116 units in February 2018, while production for its light commercial vehicles, Super Carry, was almost flat at 1,409 units.
The production of mini and compact segment cars, including Alto, WagonR, Celerio, Ignis, Swift, Baleno and Dzire, was down 9.5% to 1,07,777 units and that of utility vehicles — Vitara Brezza, Ertiga, S-Cross and Gypsy — was down 11.6% to 20,146 units. Maruti produced 2,729 Ciaz vehicles last month, down almost 50% from 5,427 units in the year-ago month.
On the other hand, the production of vans — Eeco and Omni — was up by 22.1% to 16,898 units last month compared with 13,827 units in February 2018. Maruti did not comment on the reasons for the production cut.
While the company has reported a decline of 0.8% in total sales to 1,49,682 units in February, for the 11-month period from April 2018-February 2019, its total sales grew by 5.3% to 16,18,976 units. In January 2019, the company produced 1,83,064 units, an increase of 15.6% in the year-ago month.
