Despite a fall in demand after the Central government’s demonetisation move, sales of automobiles have not come down but has actually gone up for the company, said a Maruti Suzuki India Ltd Chairman R.C Bhargava.
"Auto sales numbers have not declined. From April to December there has been a growth of 9-10 per cent. We sold 106,000 cars to dealers. The dealers sold 183,000 cars to customers. That reduced inventory to an all time low of 34,000," Bhargava told BTVi in an interview.
"On the outlook for we are confident to achieve the targets set beginning of the year," he added.
Queried about the expectations of the automobile industry in the ensuing union budget, Bhargava said there should be stability of policies and he would be happy if the budget leaves things as they are.
According to Managing Director and CEO Kenichi Ayukawa,, the company would start production at its new plant in Gujarat in February and the first model to be rolled out of the plant would be its Baleno.
He said production ramp up would gradually happen and in six months the plant would reach full capacity on two shift basis.
In December, it was reported that production at Maruti Suzuki may touch 1.58 million to 1.6 million units by the end of the current fiscal against the internal target of 1.565 million.
On the back of strong retail off-take in the festive month of October, Maruti Suzuki posted year-on-year sales growth of 14 per cent in November, the same month demonetisation was announced.
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