Despite a fall in demand after the central government's demonetisation move, the country's top two car makers, Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai Motor India are confident of meeting their annual production targets on the back of significant order backlog for some models.
According to an Economics Times report, 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.
“The company will meet its annual target by producing over 1.5 million units despite the demonetisation move,” RC Bhargava, chairman of Maruti Suzuki, said.
The chairman, however, refused to give the exact figures.
“After an initial blip in bookings in November there has been pick up in momentum of bookings. Clarity on annual numbers will emerge only by January,” Bhargava said.
Interestingly, on the back of strong retail offtake 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.
Maruti Suzuki is still sitting on inventory of close to 1lakh units, with Vitara Brezza having a waiting period of 20-24 weeks and Baleno of about 18-20 weeks, according to media reports.
Meanwhile, Hyundai Motor India announced that the company is on course to meet 2016 target of producing 6,65,000 units.
Rakesh Srivastava, senior VP of sales and marketing of Hyundai India told Economics Times that demonetisation had a short-term impact, but the current ecosystem is geared up with strong offers from the company and support from financers to deliver good numbers.
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