Maruti Suzuki predicts production loss due to chip shortage to continue in June

Maruti Suzuki India has predicted that production loss will continue in the first quarter due to shortage of electronic components. However, the company expects some relief in the July-September period, a senior company official told PTI. The country's largest carmaker has been facing semiconductor shortage for a while which has impacted its supplies to cater to the market demand.

Last fiscal, the company bore a production loss of 1.7 lakh units. "Our loss in the third quarter of the last financial year was around 45,000 units. Similarly, we lost around 38,000 units in the fourth quarter," Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) Senior Executive Officer (Sales and Marketing) Shashank Srivastava said.

As demand outdoes supply, the company's order book has stretched to over four lakh units with Ertiga leading the pack with maximum number of pending orders, i.e., close to one lakh bookings. The order bank of Brezza SUV has a backlog of 60,000 units. While newly launched Fronx and upcoming Jimny already have bookings in excess of 30,000 units each.

Srivastava further noted that due to the current supply situation, the company incurred a production loss in April and anticipates a similar situation to repeat in May and June as well. "In May, there is a loss and it is expected that we will lose numbers in June as well. This quarter, there will be a loss," he said, adding, “So probably we will have some improvement going forward from July onwards."

Last month, the company produced 1,44,097 passenger vehicles, which was down 6 per cent from 1,52,954 units sold in the same month last year. The shortage of electronic components had some impact on the production of vehicles, the company had said. In 2022-23, the carmaker produced a record 19.22 lakh units, however, it fell short of its target of taking the overall production to 20 lakh units in the last fiscal.