Maruti Suzuki cuts Sept production by 60%

Closure of Bosch plant in Malaysia hurt production in September

India's biggest carmaker, Maruti Suzuki, will see a 60 per cent cut in production in September due to shortage in supply of semiconductors. The company had earlier cut production at its Gujarat plant and said the chip shortage will also hit production in the Gurgaon and Manesar plants, effectively forcing the automaker to cut production.

India's biggest car maker Maruti Suzuki said on Tuesday that its vehicle production in September will tumble by 60 per cent due to a chip shortage.

The company, which had earlier cut down production at its Gujarat plant, said the chip shortage will hit production in Gurugram and Manesar plants, effectively forcing the automaker to cut production by 60 per cent.

Owing to a supply constraint of electronic components due to semiconductor shortage, the company is expecting an adverse impact on vehicle production in September in both Haryana and its contract manufacturing company, Suzuki Motor Gujarat Pvt Ltd. (SMG) in Gujarat.

It is currently estimated that total vehicle production volume across both locations could be around 40 per cent of normal production.

When plants operated at peak capacity in June, Maruti manufactured 1,70,719 units in

July but industry sources said that it produced 1,33,520 units in August, cutting its production by 22 per cent.

A 60 per cent cut will mean the company will produce around 68,000 vehicles in September, effectively hitting sales during the festive season.

This means a longer waiting period for cars and will

also lead to some of the variants becoming unavailable at showrooms. Maruti’s senior executive director, Shashank Srivastava, had on Monday said in an interview that sales will be hit by a global shortage of chips that has been disrupting production. “Shortage of semiconductors will stretch for September. As of now, it looks like supply will lag behind demand,” he said.