Maruti Suzuki looking at driving out of 2022 with strong sales in its trunk

Maruti Suzuki expects strong sales in November and December on the back of an improvement in semiconductor production. "We made 3,68,000 retail sales in October, higher than the previous month. We expect December retails to be higher than October and November," Maruti Suzuki's senior executive officer for marketing and sales, Shashank Srivastava, told CNBC-TV18.

Maruti Suzuki sales for October 2022 increased 21 percent to 1.67 lakh units compared to the sale of 1.38 lakh units in the same month a year ago. The auto major's domestic sales climbed 25 percent to 1.47 lakh units, while its exports were down 4 percent to 20,448 units compared to last year's 21,322 units.

The company's growth came on a low base owing to a severe shortage of semiconductors, which had reduced production in the corresponding period a year ago. However, Srivastava said that semiconductor production is improving. "We are in line to achieve record exports this year as well," he said.

Srivastava said the small car market had seen an improvement as well. "The small car market comprises 36 percent of the overall industry," he said, adding that the introduction of Alto K10 in August helped the company.

"Alto K10 has been the number one player in the industry for the last two months. It clocked in 25,000 units in September," he said.

The auto manufacturer on Wednesday, in a statement, said that its cumulative production crossed 25 million units. "This makes Maruti Suzuki the only Indian company to have achieved this significant milestone in passenger vehicle production," the statement said.

"2022 marks 40 years of Suzuki's partnership with the people of India. Crossing 25 million cumulative production milestone this year is a testimony of Suzuki's continued commitment and partnership with the people of India," Hisashi Takeuchi, the managing director and CEO of Maruti Suzuki, said.

He also said that the company had started work on setting up a new manufacturing facility in Kharkhoda in Haryana.