Maruti Suzuki sees exports doubling to 1.6 lakh units
08 Feb 2010
Maruti Suzuki India Limited expecting its exports to double to about 1.6 lakh units in the current financial year. The Indian auto major is also expecting over 20 per cent growth in its overall sales.
Not surprisingly, its exports would come largely from the A Star, which is also being bought by Japanese automaker Nissan Motor Company (NMC) on a contract basis. The auto maker's overseas markets will include Europe, which will be its largest market with one lakh A-Star compact cars already sold. The A-star, which rolls out only from the company's Manesar facility, is exported mostly to Europe and other countries such as Chile, Angola, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Algeria, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Philippines and the UAE.
The car sells as Suzuki Celerio in these countries.
MSI also contract manufactures this model for Nissan, which sells it in Europe as Pixo.
Agency reports quoted Mayank Pareekh, executive officer, marketing and sales, Maruti Suzuki India, as saying that the company exported 80,000 units in the last fiscal.
The company had been growing at about 20-22 per cent for most of the current fiscal in the domestic market and expected this growth to continue for the entire fiscal.
In its bid to grow its presence in the South East Asian markets and, according to reports Maruti Suzuki has already executed the first shipment of 500 units of Ritz to the Indonesian market. Ritz is available in two variants -1.2 litre petrol and a 1.3 litre diesel engine.
The move to tap the South East Asian markets with Ritz comes with the A-Star premium compact car exports crossing 1 lakh units mark by December. The A-Star is being exported to 44 countries, mostly in Europe, as also the Philippines, Taiwan and Hong.