India: Maruti, Hyundai exports dip as cos shift focus on domestic mkt

NEW DELHI: The country's top two carmakers Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai Motor witnessed significant declines in export during October, as they shifted attention to meet the rising domestic demand ahead of the festive season.

In the month, domestic market leader Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) witnessed its exports declining by 18.11 per cent to 11,353 units from 13,864 units in the year-ago period.

Likewise, its rival and the country's largest exporter Hyundai Motor India (HMIL) also saw its overseas sales going down by 25.32 per cent to 17,500 units from 23,434 units in the corresponding period last year.

"In the last two months, we have diverted our exports to the domestic market to meet the demand. People wait to buy cars in festivals and if we cannot fulfil it, then we will loose them," HMIL Director (Marketing and Sales) Arvind Saxena said.

Besides, the demand in the European market has come down in recent months after the scrappage scheme exhausted, he added.

Many European nations incentivised buying of new small cars in exchange of old ones to boost the auto sales after the downturn in 2008. Though the scheme helped in pushing the sales and increasing the exports from India, but the money alloted for such scheme started drying up very soon.

MSI Managing Director and CEO Shinzo Nakanishi had also said that the company's exports to Europe has been declining.

"We were able to expand to other non-European markets and during the (second) quarter, 60 per cent of our total exports came from the non-European markets, up from 20 per cent a year ago," he added.

The company would continue to focus on non-European markets to match last year's exports volumes of about 1.47 lakh units, he said.

In the domestic market, both MSI and HMIL achieved record sales in October, thereby signaling strong demand in India.

MSI posted its best figure so far for the domestic market at 1,07,555 units in October, a 50.32 per cent increase from 71,551 units in October 2009.

This was for the first time, when the company crossed one lakh units-mark in a single month in the domestic market.

HMIL too reported its best-ever domestic monthly sales at 34,725 units in October, a jump of 22.70 per cent over the same month last year. It had sold 28,301 units in the year-ago period.