While the mini and super compact segments again have come to the rescue as they did in the previous month to the country’s largest auto company Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, the decline in sales of other segments and a sharp fall in exports have hit its overall December show.
But what should probably worry the automaker is that even the performance of these two segments, while better on a year-over-year basis, show a near stagnation for the company on a sequential basis (December 2013 sales compared with November 2013 sales).
Maruti’s mini segment sales, where it has four models - M800, Alto, A-Star and WagonR -, witnessed a 16.7 per cent jump to 38,286 units in December 2013 compared with 32,797 vehicles in December 2012.
In the super compact segment, where its popular Dzire is positioned, the company sold 15,427 vehicles compared with 13,076 units in November 2012, an 18 per cent increase.
These two segments were the best performing segments for Maruti in November 2013 too when the mini segment clocked sales of 38,040 vehicles and Dzire model registered sales of 15,286 units.
In both segments, the improvement in sales on a sequential basis has only been marginal.
While in the mini segment, the December 2013 sales was higher by 246 units compared to the previous month, in the super compact segment the sales was higher by just 141 units compared to the earlier month (November 2013).
But in other segments, Maruti had shown a decline in numbers in December 2013 compared to the same month in 2012.
Compact segment
Reflecting the growing competition in the compact segment where once Maruti’s Swift ruled unchallenged, the company witnessed a sharp fall in sales by 14.7 per cent.
It sold 19,171 units in the compact segment, where it has apart from Swift two more models - Estilo and Ritz, in December 2013 against 22,482 units in December 2012.
In the mid-size segment too, it sold just 271 vehicles (SX4 model) compared with 329 in Dec 2012, a 17.6 per cent decline.
Utility vehicles
In the utility vehicles segment where Maruti has Gypsy, Grand Vitara and Ertiga models, the sales declined 5.5 per cent to 5,146 units in December last year compared with 5,447 units in December 2012.
But the sales of vans edged up to 8,312 units last month compared with 7,897 units in December 2012. Total domestic sales at 86,613 units in December 2013 reflected a 5.5 per cent improvement over the same month in December 2012 (82,073 vehicles).
Exports hit
However, the exports took a sharp knock last month, falling to 4,311 units compared with 13,072 vehicles in December 2012, a whopping 67 per cent fall. Total sales (exports and domestic sales) declined 4.4 per cent to 90,924 units in December 2013 compared with 95,145 units in December 2012.
Shares of Maruti were trading at Rs 1,768.35, up by Rs 5.35, on the BSE around 1 p.m.