Maruti’s January sales down 2.6% as exports fall

Maruti Suzuki India Ltd has reported a 2.6-per cent year-on-year fall in its January sales, at 1,13,606 lakh units against 1,16,606 units sold in the same month of 2015, on the back of a big fall in exports.

The country's biggest automaker saw its domestic sales grow by a marginal 0.8 per cent year-on-year to 1,06,383 units, from 1,05,559 units sold in January of the previous year, but its exports declined by 34.6 per cent to 7,223 units from at 11,047 units in January 2015.

''Domestic sales would have been higher, but lesser number of working days in January 2016 impacted overall production and dispatch,'' the company said in a statement, adding that sales would have been higher but for lesser number of working days.

''Domestic sales would have been higher, but lesser number of working days in January 2016 impacted overall production and dispatch.''

Maruti said sales of its super compact (Dzire Tour) cars rose 157 per cent in January while sales of UVs (Ertiga, S-Cross, Grand Vitara and Gypsy) rose 29.2 per cent while van sales rose 3.9 per cent.

However, sales of other passenger cars, including Mini, Compact and Mid size, declined, with the mid-size Ciaz taking the biggest hit slipping by 9.6 per cent to 5,431 units.

Sales of both the 'Mini' segment (Alto, WagonR) and Compact segment (Swift, Baleno) were down compared to January last year. While the Mini segment contributed 34,206 units (versus 35,750 units in January 2015), the Compact segment contributed 44,575 units (versus 45,881 units in January 2015), the company said.

Earlier in January, Maruti Suzuki announced a price increase (ex-showroom - Delhi) ranging from Rs1,000 to Rs4,000 across models, while raising the price of the recently launched model Baleno in the range of Rs5,000 to Rs12,000.