Maruti Suzuki is likely to produce around 135,000-140,000 units in December, the lowest production level reported in the last 13 months.
“It is expected that the shortage of electronic components may have an impact on December’22 production more than that in the recent months”, the company confirmed, adding it is taking all possible measures to minimise the impact.
Supplies of semi-conductors have deteriorated in the last few days and that is likely to lead to a potential production loss of around 10,000 units, said people aware of development.
“The supply chain has been disrupted again by the lockdowns in China and this has brought more uncertainty in planning production”, said an industry executive in the know.
Maruti Suzuki’s production last stood lowest at 1.35 lakh units in October 2021.
Based on an average selling price of Rs 5.51 lakh per unit, production loss of around 10,000 units would result in revenues foregone to the tune of Rs 551 crore for the company.
Maruti Suzuki reported peak production of 184,890 units in July 2022 when the semiconductor crisis had eased and supplies improved from vendors. However, production has declined sequentially in the last three months. In November 2022, Maruti produced 152,786 units which is almost equivalent to the production in the same month last year.
On a year to date basis, the maker of Swift and Dzire has produced 13.18 lakh units, a growth of 30% compared to the same period last year. The company needs to produce 1.90 lakh units per month for the next four months to achieve production guidance indicated to vendors.
In response to a query from The Economic Times, Rahul Bharti, executive director at Maruti Suzuki said, “The availability of semi-conductors has always been unpredictable and has impacted production volumes to varying levels so far. Even now, availability of semi-conductors remains unpredictable and it is difficult to say with confidence when this problem will get over.”
