Maruti Suzuki expects 10 percent growth in first half
Friday, 28 August 2009, 23:46 IST
Printer Print Email Email
New Delhi: Maruti Suzuki, India's largest car maker, Friday said it had overridden the downturn and expected to grow more in the first half of this fiscal than in the year-ago period when the global meltdown had not yet set in. "We are expecting a 10 percent growth in the April-October period this year over last year," said Maruti Suzuki chairman R.C. Bhargava here. The company revolutionised India's automobile sector in the early 1980s by giving the country its first small car, the Maruti 800, a model that drove it in the pole position in the auto sector. This year, Bhargava indicated, it expected the Swift and Swift DZire models to be its growth drivers. "We are ramping up production (of the two models)," he told reporters on the sidelines of a conference on the automobile sector. Bhargava, who steered the company in its infancy as its managing director, said the coming September-October festive season would provide the impetus Maruti was looking for. "We are expecting a 14 percent growth this festive season over last year," he said. "Production expansion, capacity expansion decisions will be taken on Sep 2 during Maruti's AGM (annual general meeting)." O. Suzuki, chairman of Japan's Suzuki Motor Corp that hold 51 percent in the Indian auto maker, will be present at the AGM, he said. Bhargava also said Maruti Suzuki has targeted exporting 130,000 units of its A-Star model.
Source: IANS
siliconindia