Maruti to halt Gurgaon car production on Saturday

The country's largest car maker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) is undertaking a one day-production cut at its Gurgaon plant on Saturday amid declining sales.

"There will be a one-day production suspension at the Gurgaon plant. The Manesar plant will function normally," a company official said.

The company's Gurgaon plant rolls out models, including the M800, Alto series, WagonR, Estillo, Dzire and Ertiga. It has a capacity to roll out between 3,500 and 4,000 units a day.

"The reason for the one-day production shut down at Gurgaon is due to market slowdown," the official said, however, adding production of engines at the plant for supplies to its Manesar facility would continue as usual.

MSI had reported 7.89 per cent decline in its total sales at 1,09,567 units in February 2013. It had sold 118,949

units in the corresponding month last year.

In February this year, MSI had recorded domestic sales of 97,955 units compared to 107,653 units in the year-ago period, registering a fall of 9.01 per cent.

The company's total passenger car sales in the domestic market dipped by 10.89 per cent to 83,865 units from 94,118 units in the same month of 2012.

Sales of the company's mini-segment cars, including M800, A-Star, Alto and WagonR, fell by 15.87 per cent to 41,311 units during the month from 49,104 units in February 2012.

In the compact segment (comprising Estilo, Swift and Ritz models), MSI witnessed a dip of 13.90 per cent in sales to 24,021 units from 27,899 units in the same month a year ago.

Sales of Omni and Eeco, also fell by 38.87 per cent to 8,133 units from 13,305 units in February 2012.

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