Maruti Suzuki expects around 15pc sales growth this fiscal

NEW DELHI, April 4 (The Economic Times): The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India Monday said it expects its sales growth to moderate to around 15 per cent this fiscal from nearly 25 per cent last fiscal. "We are looking at 12-15 per cent growth during this fiscal, both for the company and the industry," Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) Chairman RC Bhargava told journalists on the sidelines of a summit by International Centre for Automotive Technology ( ICAT ). MSI's total sales soared 24.81 per cent to 12,71,005 units in 2010-11 from 10,18,365 units in the previous fiscal. The domestic sales increased by 30.08 per cent to 11,32,739 from 8,70,790 units in 2009-10. "I don't think, we will continue at 26-27 per cent growth rate in this fiscal. We cannot have such as high growth rate every year," Bhargava said. The company had reported its highest ever monthly sales in March at 1,21,952 units compared to 95,123 units in the same month last year, a jump of 28.20 per cent. When asked about the progress made in construction of its second manufacturing unit inside the Manesar facility, Bhargava said: "We are trying to cut short some steps to commission the plant as early as possible. We will try to open it around September this year. It may not be the entire plant, but some portion of it." The company had announced an investment of over Rs 36.25 billion to set up two new plants with 0.25 million annual capacities each inside the Manesar facility. The carmaker had said it ramped up production by about 10 per cent to over 0.11 million units every month from October last year, taking its total annual output to 1.4 million units in 2011-12.