Maruti's transformation -- if not descent -- to the 'low road' of labour practices stems from growing competitive pressures in the marketplace since the late 1990s.
Giving in to rising input cost pressures, the country's largest carmaker by sales, Maruti Suzuki India has increased prices of its vehicles by up to Rs 8,000 across models, except its newly launched compact car Alto K10.
A drop in value of the rupee against the dollar and other major currencies may hurt Maruti Suzuki, the country's biggest producer of passenger cars, as it is slated to import as much as Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion) of auto parts in this financial year.
Maruti Suzuki India on Tuesday became the first Indian automobile company to produce one million cars in a year.
From the Sensex pack, Tata Consultancy Services, Mahindra & Mahindra, ICICI Bank, Maruti Suzuki India, Power Grid, Axis Bank and Adani Ports & Special Economic Zones were among the laggards. On the other hand, HCL Technologies, Tech Mahindra, JSW Steel, Hindustan Unilever, Infosys and Titan were among the gainers.
The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India is understood to be planning to ramp up its output by about 10 per cent to produce over 1,10,000 units every month from October.
Currency fluctuation has been affecting margins.
Suzuki Motor Corporation has already said India would be the global small car development hub outside Japan for other markets, he added. MSI's R&D centre is being developed to be at par with SMC's facility in Japan. It will also have crash test centre.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday announced raising of excise duty to 12 per cent from 10 per cent at present.
The company's overseas sales growth was driven mainly by the export of its flagship model A-Star, which clocked sales of over one lakh units till December 2010, within 11 months of launch.
Ahead of the festive season, several passenger and commercial vehicle manufacturers have agreed to offer discounts of 1.5-3 per cent on new vehicle purchase against scrapped old vehicles after a meeting with Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, an official statement said on Tuesday. The statement further said Mercedes Benz India has offered a flat discount of Rs 25,000, which will be over and above all existing discounts. Union Road Transport and Highways (RT&H) Minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday chaired a meeting with the SIAM delegation at Bharat Mandapam, where he addressed pressing issues in the automobile industry.
According to the company, the talks that began on Wednesday morning at 11 am continued through the night and were still going on Thursday morning.
"Out of the total exports, A-Star alone will comprise one lakh units while the rest would be other models," Maruti Suzuki India executive officer (marketing) Mayank Pareek told reporters in New Delhi. The company currently has an inventory level of three weeks and is producing more to meet the upcoming festive demands. On the company's diesel-engine plans, Pareek said it will expand the production capacity to 300,000 units per annum by 2010-11 from the existing 2,40,000 units
Appellate tribunal NCLAT on Monday stayed the Rs 200 crore penalty imposed by the Competition Commission on Maruti Suzuki but directed the car maker to deposit 10 per cent of the total amount within three weeks. The amount has to be deposited with the Registrar of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT). A three-member NCLAT bench stayed the demand notice issued on October 27 to the car maker, subject to the condition of depositing 10 per cent of the penalty amount.
The average discounts on the models, especially petrol, were all-time high during the July-September quarter.
Company had posted a net profit of Rs. 656.55 crore in the corresponding quarter of 2009-10 fiscal.
In addition to the showroom discounts that ranged from Rs 12,000 on Maruti 800, Rs 11,000 on Alto and Rs 18,000 on Wagon R and Estillo, it offered an additional discount of about Rs 4,000 to such employees. This year, it has stopped financing the scheme. Instead, it has tied up with Axis Bank that offers financing at 10.75 per cent with repayment periods of three to five years (market rates are currently at 14 -15 per cent).
With induction of these people, the company's workforce will expand by about 27 per cent to nearly 11,000 employees.
India's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki plans to ride on the back of new launches in the future to retain its numero uno position in the market place and beat back competition from its peers.
Hyundai Motor India Ltd has become the country's fifth most valuable auto firm by market valuation in its debut trade on Tuesday. Shares of Hyundai Motor India Ltd, the Indian arm of South Korean automaker Hyundai, listed at Rs 1,931, reflecting a decline of 1.47 per cent against the issue price of Rs 1,960 on the BSE earlier in the day. The stock slumped 7.80 per cent to Rs 1,807.05 during the day and finally ended at Rs 1,820.40 apiece, down 7.12 per cent.
The country's largest car-maker Maruti Suzuki India on Tuesday launched a diesel variant of its SX4 sedan at an introductory price of Rs 7.74-8.62 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi).
Fada estimates that global supply chain headwinds like scarce availability of rare earth elements for electric vehicle components and geopolitical tensions may affect urban consumer sentiment in June as well.
The stock of the country's largest passenger vehicle maker, Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL), has been hitting successive all-time highs over the past three trading sessions. The rally in the scrip has helped it notch over a 21 per cent gain since the start of February, outperforming the National Stock Exchange Nifty Auto Index. The gains for the leader of small passenger cars have been more recent, as the company still trails the Nifty Auto over one- and two-year periods.
India's largest car-maker Maruti Suzuki India Ltd on Monday announced a fresh investment of US $1.8 billion to achieve its target of producing one million cars by 2010-11. The bulk of Maruti's fresh investment will be in a research and development facility, for which the company has applied to the Haryana government for 500 acres of land near Manesar.
Apple Inc's iPhones assembled in India achieved market revenues of Rs 162,000 crore. Tata Steel's revenue for the same period was Rs 162,324 crore.
In a statement issued on Friday, India's largest car manufacturer said that 'due to sharp increase in the input costs and also introduction of BS-IV norms in some models, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd has decided to pass on part of this cost impact to customers.'
Auto manufacturers have focused on launching CNG variants of their popular models to meet consumer demand for vehicles with lower running costs.
For the entire 2012-13 financial year, however, the company's total sales increased by 3.33 per cent to 11,71,434 units from 11,33,695 units in 2011-12, Maruti Suzuki India said in a statement.
The company has tied up with scrap dealers across India to dispose of old cars exchanged for new cars and is welcoming customers to come with old cars of any make for exchange. The company has started giving offers to customers worth up to Rs 40,000 while purchasing a new car through exchange, while inviting bids from scrap dealers at the same time for the old cars.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi wooed Indian auto giant Maruti Suzuki to set up a car project in Gujarat and said that the state government would provide all the facilities to it.
Maruti Suzuki India has hiked prices of its vehicles across all models, except the entry level sedan DZire, by up to 3.4 per cent.
Japanese manufacturer Suzuki displayed two cars at the Frankfurt Motor Show that have a huge potential for launch in India.
The company had posted a net profit of Rs 465.36 crore (Rs 4.65 billion) for the same quarter last fiscal, Maruti Suzuki India said.
The car will come with a petrol and a diesel engine option.
Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL), which witnessed labour unrest at its Manesar facility, is set to complete the process of regularisation of contract workers at the unit by November-end.
Maruti Suzuki, India's largest car company by sales, is working on an ambitious plan to launch electric cars and compressed natural gas variants for three or four models in the domestic market.
From the Sensex stocks, Maruti Suzuki India, Tata Motors, JSW Steel, Larsen & Toubro, Tata Steel, Mahindra and Mahindra, Tata Consultancy Services, Tech Mahindra, HCL Technologies and Infosys were the laggards. HDFC Bank, Sun Pharmaceuticals, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Nestle India and Asian Paints were among the gainers.
The proxy advisory firm's latest comments come within days of Maruti saying that it expects to save about Rs 10,500 crore (Rs 105 billion) in the first 15 years by not investing in the Gujarat facility.
Suzuki will also meet Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, industry sources said. The country's largest car maker Maruti Suzuki India, majority owned by the Japanese firm, is investing up to Rs 1,500 crore (Rs 15 billion) in building test tracks and an R&D centre in Rohtak, Haryana.
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