According to several people in the know, Maruti Suzuki has guided component suppliers on production of up to 140,000 units in March, as against the earlier plan of producing 160,000 units and even a peak of up to 190,000 shared at the beginning of 2022. The output is set to fall month-on-month also by 10-15%.
An email sent to Maruti Suzuki seeking comment did not elicit any response till the time of going to press on Wednesday.
Before the production cut, the company had sounded out its vendors to prepare to produce 492,000 units in the ongoing last quarter of fiscal 2022. This would have taken the total production to 1.66 million units for this fiscal year.
A 20,000-30,000 unit fall in production would mean the company would have to forego around ₹1,000-1,500 crore of revenue for the March quarter, based on its average selling price of ₹5.08 lakh per vehicle in the December quarter. The company has now guided its vendors to produce around 93,000-94,000 units at its plants at Gurgaon and Manesar in Haryana and more than 45,000 at its Gujarat unit in March.
Based on the latest production plan, the market leader is set to forego Rs 10,000 crore of revenue, or 200,000 units, this fiscal year because of the shortage of chips. Maruti Suzuki will likely end FY22 with a total production of 1.63 million units, posting growth of 13%.
The company could have sold more if not for the chip shortage, as it is currently sitting on orders for 275,000 units on its books, worth about ₹13,700 crore.
