Maruti Suzuki reports first-quarter profit as demand for personal vehicles rises
Maruti Suzuki India Ltd reported a profit for the first quarter on Wednesday, as it benefited from pandemic-fueled demand for personal vehicles and price hikes that offset rising raw material prices.
Maruti, which sells every second car in India, said unit sales more than tripled in the quarter to 353,614 vehicles from a year earlier, when the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic triggered a nationwide lockdown.
Its sales were, however, 28.2% lower sequentially as a second wave of Covid-19 infections hampered business.
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The carmaker has also come under pressure from rising prices of commodities such as steel and copper. It has tried to preserve its margins by passing on rising costs to its customers, having bumped up the prices of its cars thrice this year.
The company posted a profit of 4.41 billion rupees ($59.28 million) for the three months ended June 30, compared with a loss of 2.49 billion rupees a year earlier.
Total revenue from operations rose four-fold to 177.71 billion rupees in the reported quarter.
