Quake may hit Maruti imports; celebrations called off

14 Mar 2011

Maruti Suzuki, India's biggest carmaker by sales, today said it is assessing the possible impact of the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan on its components import from there, even as it cancelled celebrations to mark the one crore production milestone in India due to the events in majority partner Suzuki's homeland. 

"There will not be any immediate effect on production. We are at present trying to assess if there will be any impact on long-term," Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) managing executive officer (marketing and sales) Mayank Pareek said. 

The company usually has buffer stock of components for about two weeks and till then normal production will continue, he added. 

Pareek declined to give further details saying till a complete assessment is carried out, nothing can commented on. 

Meanwhile, the company cancelled the celebrations for rolling out the 1,00,00,000th car tomorrow in view of the 11 March disaster in Japan. 

"This is a big tragedy for mankind. That is why we are not doing anything on our one crore production mark. We have cancelled everything, this is not the time to celebrate," MSI chairman R C Bhargava said.