Maruti Suzuki total sales surge 12% to 172,535 units in January

The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India on Wednesday reported a 12 per cent increase in total sales at 1,72,535 units in January.

The company had sold a total of 1,54,379 units in the year-ago period, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) said in a statement.

Total domestic passenger vehicle sales were at 1,55,142 units as compared to 1,36,442 units in the corresponding period previous year, a growth of 14 per cent, it added.

Maruti Suzuki India Senior Executive Officer Marketing & Sales Shashank Srivastava said the industry began with a low network stock because of high retails in December.

"Therefore, the depleted inventory resulted in slightly muted retails, taking up the network stock to 1.84 lakh units. On the demand side, the enquiries and bookings have been steady despite price hikes done by several OEMs," he noted.

Constraints of production still continue due to the semiconductor supply situation, which resulted in some loss in wholesales as well as retail, Srivastava said.

This issue is expected to continue for a few more months, he added.

Sales of mini segment cars, comprising Alto and S-Presso, grew to 25,446 units as against 18,634 units last month.

Sales of compact cars, including Baleno, Celerio, Dzire, Ignis, Swift, Tour S and WagonR, rose to 73,840 units as compared to 71,472 units in the year-ago month. Utility vehicles, consisting of Brezza, Ertiga, S-Cross and XL6, clocked sales of 35,353 units last month as compared to 26,624 units earlier.

Sales of van Eeco were at 11,709 units in January as against 10,528 units previous year, while that of light commercial vehicle Super Carry stood at 4,019 units as against 3,537 units earlier.

MSI said its exports last month stood at 17,393 units as compared to 17,937 units in the same month last year.