Assembly lines slow as car demand drops

Production of many popular passenger car models was cut last month, bringing down overall production figure by 9.4% to the below two lakh unit mark at 191,327 units (211,150 units).

Obviously, car makers are not very hopeful of robust sales during the ongoing festival season and have lowered production to accommodate already high product inventories with dealers.

Though Maruti Suzuki India’s labour troubles were largely to account for such a steep reduction in car production in September, many other companies, too, did not seem to find enough cheer in the festive atmosphere and chose to make lesser number of vehicles.

Dealers point towards enough enquiries for most popular car models but not enough conversions (actual sales) because of steep interest rates and consumers’ concern on rising prices of petrol. Diesel cars, though, have been flying off the shelves.

As per Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam) data, production of the Tata Nano declined to almost half at 3,003 units (5,696 units) and domestic dispatches were lower by almost the same margin at 2,936 units (5,520 units) last month.

General Motors made only 808 units of the Spark last month against 2,584 units in September 2010; dispatches were down to 1,596 units (2,415 units). Fiat produced only 853 units of the Palio and Grande Punto together and dispatched just 678 units (926 units). Ford manufactured 7,092 units of the Figo but dispatched only 5,220 units (6,465 units). Volkswagen made 1,842 units (2,995 units) of the Polo, but dispatched 3,050 units (2,891 units).
Maruti’s total car production declined 33% to 73,222 units while dispatches were lower by 17.16% at 78,816 units. Combined production of the A-Star, M800, Alto and WagonR fell to almost half at 32,105 units (60,852 units) whereas dispatches were down to 37,324 units (48,780 units).