Maruti Suzuki hopes demands to pick up, but remains guarded about sales growth

India’s biggest carmaker Maruti Suzuki hopes the July trends will consolidate in coming days helping the company to improve the sales figures after Covid-19 crisis saw a dismal first quarter for the carmaker as well as the industry.

However, the company remains guarded about sales growth. MarutiSuzuki India's Executive Director for Marketing and Sales Shashank Srivastava advised caution over sales projections.

"The reason for this guarded optimism about future projections is due to the uncertainty over which way will buyers' sentiments move. There is a vaccine upside and a second wave downside. This is the reason for the guarded optimism," Srivastava was quoted by IANS.

He also said, "I am relieved due to the bounce back, also rural side too bounced back quite strongly, it's pretty positive, yet a long way to go."

Sales have been picking up gradually after an unprecedented April when Maruti and almost every other OEM reported either zero or negligible sales owing to the national lockdown in place to check the spread of Covid-19.

In July, Maruti Suzuki sold a total of 108,064 units, including one lakh units in the domestic market itself. Maruti said July's sales figure is just a 1.1% fall when compared to figures from July in 2019. What was more important was that it was a massive 88.2% jump over sales figures from just a month earlier.

A close look at the break-up of Maruti's July sales reveals that the ray of sunshine is peering through the windows of the mini sub-segment which has Alto and S-Presso. The two cars accounted for 17,258 units in sales for July which is 49.1% more than figures from 11,577.

Srivastava said pent-up demands as well as resumption of economic activity helped Maruti to bounce back in July. "For the long run everything depends upon how the economy performs. In the short run, I am quite relieved for the bounce back," he was quoted by IANS. "Current trends do indicate positive momentum, but with a caveat that everything depends upon how the economy performs. As of now we are cautiously optimistic rather than purely optimistic," he explained.

(With input from agencies)

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