Suzuki Motor to invest $970 mln in second production line in Gujarat

Nov 4 Japan's Suzuki Motor Corp willinvest about 100 billion yen ($970.97 million) in a second vehicle production line at its new plant in Gujarat, even before operations have begun, the Nikkei business daily reported on Friday.

The second line could debut in early 2019, the report said, and will manufacture the same yearly volume as the first production line, which is slated to debut in 2017.

The addition of the production lines are expected to increase Suzuki's manufacturing capacity to 2 million cars a year, the paper said.

The new factory in Gujarat will manufacture models such as the Baleno hatchback, with vehicles for export also being considered due to Gujarat being a major port, Nikkei said.

Suzuki's unit, Maruti Suzuki India, had earmarked an investment of about 185 billion rupees ($2.77 billion) for the Gujarat plan in December last year, to set up six production lines capable of producing 250,000 vehicles each, Reuters reported in December.

Suzuki Motor said vehicles sales in India, its biggest market, rose 5.2 percent in the April-June period.

($1 = 102.9900 yen) ($1 = 66.6855 Indian rupees) (Reporting By Aparajita Saxena in Bengaluru; Editing by Stephen Coates)