"Our next board meeting is still two months away," I.V. Rao, managing executive officer for engineering at Maruti Suzuki India Ltd., told reporters. "We are internally discussing fresh investment proposals, but a final decision will be taken at the board meeting (in January)."
Mr. Rao declined to elaborate on the planned investment, but India's largest car maker by sales had said previously it may raise manufacturing capacity to meet rising demand for its hatchbacks and sedans.Maruti's factories are located at Gurgaon and Manesar in the northern state of Haryana.
The company wants to increase capacity as rising incomes, easier loan rates and the introduction of new models such as the Estilo and Ritz have lifted local demand. Exports are also showing a rising trend because of increasing global demand for fuel-efficient small cars.
Sale of Maruti cars grew 25% during April-October 2009 to 558,332 vehicles. Local sales grew 16% to 478,049 vehicles, while exports more than doubled to 80,283 vehicles from 35,599 a year earlier.
Mr. Rao said also that Maruti, which sells one in every two cars sold in India, has discontinued production of the Versa multipurpose vehicle because of low demand.
"The numbers were very low as it is for Versa and we were making the car only on demand," he said. "Now we have completely stopped production for the model."The Versa will be replaced with a new van, Mr. Rao said, without giving a timeframe.He said Maruti will likely touch one million unit annual car production by March.
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