Slowdown Blues: Maruti Suzuki cuts production for 9th straight month in October, output falls by 21%

Maruti Suzuki India, the country's largest car maker, has cut its production by 20.7 per cent year-on-year (YoY) in October, the ninth consecutive month in which it trimmed output, amid weak demand and a liquidity crunch.

"The auto major produced a total of 119,337 units in october, 2019 as compared to 150,497 units produced in the same month last year," Maruti Suzuki India said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The mid-size segment, which comprises cars like Ciaz, saw the steepest decline of 45 per cent with the company producing just 1,922 units against 3,513 units rolled out in the year-ago period.

Also Read: Maruti Suzuki posts growth for first time since February, reports 2.3% rise in October sales

Bucking the trend, production of utility vehicles segment, which comprises of Vitara Brezza, Ertiga and S-Cross, increased marginally to 22,736 units versus 22,526 units in the year-ago month.

The total production of mini and compact segment cars including New WagonR, Celerio, Ignis, Swift, Baleno and Dzire fell by 39 per cent to 20,985 units as against 34,295 units in October last year, it said. Production of compact cars (New WagonR, Celerio, Ignis, Swift, Baleno, DZire) was cut 13.6 per cent YoY to 64,079 units.

Also Read: Suzuki defers opening of new Gujarat car plant amid profit slump

Production of passenger vehicles stood at 86,986 units versus 111,975 units in October 2018, Maruti said in the exchange filing.

The company's light commercial vehicle output decreased by 10 per cent to 1,954 units as compared to 2,179 units in August 2018. Production of vans Omni and Eeco fell 45 per cent to 7,661 units last month.

Earlier this week, Maruti reported a 2.3 per cent growth in domestic passenger vehicle sales in October ending a declining trend in monthly sales that started back in March. Maruti dispatched 139,121 units to its dealerships across the country last month against 135,948 units in October last year. In absolute terms, this was Maruti's highest sales in any month this fiscal. The last time it had posted higher sales than this was in March 2019 when it had sent 145,031 units to its dealers.

Edited by Chitranjan Kumar