NEW DELHI: In what may be a sign of a mild turnaround in the automobile sector after months of contracting sales, India’s largest carmaker — Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) — saw output from its factories see a year-on-year rise in November.
The prolonged demand slowdown had seen production numbers slide on an annual basis over the nine months leading up to October.
According to details disclosed by the automaker, total production during the month rose by 4.33%, with the company rolling out a total of 1,41,834 units in November this year against 1,35,946 units during the same month last year.
In terms of passenger vehicles alone, production rose by 3.67%, going from 1,34,149 units in November 2018 to 1,39,084 units in November 2019.
The automaker had cut production by as much as 20.7% and 17.48% in October and September, respectively.
The growth in production follows a festive boost in October, when sales growth turned positive for the first time in nearly a year.
However, while analysts say this positive trend is promising for an industry which has had to shut down its factories for several days a month in the recent past, they also warn that this could just be a festive season bump.
“We need to see how demand turns out over the next few months. Since the BS-VI transition is coming up in April next year, there might be more disruption in sales,” said a senior industry executive.