Despite woes, Maruti retains market share - mydigitalfc.com

Maruti Suzuki managed to retain its market share in the Indian car industry in 2012. However, the country's largest automaker saw a marginal drop in market share in overall passenger vehicle (PV) market. In 2012, country's total passenger vehicle volumes grew by about 10 per cent to 2.77 million units compared with 2.51 million in 2011. In this, passenger cars grew by 4 per cent to 2.02 million against 1.95 million units, while utility vehicle sales saw a whopping rise of 51 per cent to 5.13 lakh units compared with 3.41 lakh units in 2011, driven by new launches. During 2012, Maruti's total passenger vehicle volumes grew by 7 per cent at 1,063,599 units against 997,281 units in 2011. Car volumes registered a rise of 4 per cent at 878,272 units compared with 844,001 units in 2011. Its market share in the PV segment marginally declined to 38.3 per cent in 2012 from 39.7 per cent in the previous year, while car market share stood at 43.5 per cent as against 43.3 per cent. "Although there had been mob violence at Maruti Suzuki in July, due to great sales of the Ertiga, sales increase of diesel engine vehicles such as the Swift DZire, and the launch of the Alto800, the whole sales increased year-on-year by 6.6 per cent as well as the retail sales by 5.9 per cent in 2012," said a statement of Suzuki Motor. Driven by its multi utility vehicle (MUV) Ertiga, launched in April, Maruti's UV volumes zoomed to 62,643 units in 2012 compared with 5,502 units in the previous calendar year. With the rollout of Ertiga, Maruti garnered a market share of 12.2 per cent in the UV segment in the country in 2012, occupying third position in the segment after Mahindra & Mahindra and Toyota. "The introduction of compact SUVs (such as Skoda Yeti, Mahindra Quanto, Maruti Suzuki Ertiga) by several companies helped expand the market further, targeting customers in lower age brackets who prefer driving themselves," pointed out a report of India Ratings & Research, Fitch group firm. In passenger car sales of Maruti, compact (Swift, Zen Estilo and Ritz) and super compact or entry level sedan (Swift Dzire) segments reported strong growth of 20 per cent (at 2.63 lakh units) and 55 per cent (at 1.54 lakh units) respectively, while other categories such as Mini, mid-sized sedan, executive and van segments reported fall in volumes. "High interest rates and fuel prices continued to remain a demand dampener for the overall industry in December quarter. However, with appreciating currency and slow rate cycle reversal, we feel better times lie ahead for the industry. Margins for most players are likely to expand QoQ on higher volumes and lower input costs. Maruti Suzuki is expected to post a sharp uptick on superior product mix, favourable currency movement and operating leverage," according to Sneha Venkatraman, analyst-automobiles, HDFC Securities. balachandarg@mydigitalfc.com via Technology - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNGLlGDpQNdZH6rhbAcBM8jQQZo4gA&url=http://www.mydigitalfc.com/news/despite-woes-maruti-retains-market-share-928

Put the internet to work for you. via Personal Recipe 2598265