Closure of Bosch plant in Malaysia hurt production in September


India's biggest carmaker Maruti Suzuki said on Tuesday that its vehicle production in September will tumble by 60 percent due to a chip shortage.

The company, which had earlier cut down production at its Gujarat plant, said the chip shortage will hit production in Gurugram and Manesar plants, effectively forcing the automaker to cut production by 60 per cent.

Owing to a supply constraint of electronic components due to a semiconductor shortage, the company is expecting an adverse impact on vehicle production in September in both Haryana and its contract manufacturing company, Suzuki Motor Gujarat Pvt Ltd. (SMG) in Gujarat.

It is currently estimated that total vehicle production volume across both locations could be around 40 per cent of normal production.

When plants operated at peak capacity in June, Maruti manufactured 1,70,719 units in July but industry sources said that it produced 1,33,520 units in August, cutting its production by 22 percent.

A 60 percent cut will mean the company will produce around 68,000 vehicles in September, effectively hitting sales during the festive season.

This means a longer waiting period for cars and will also lead to some of the variants becoming unavailable at showrooms. Maruti's senior executive director, Shashank Srivastava, had on Monday said in an interview that sales will be hit by a global shortage of chips that have been disrupting production. "Shortage of semiconductors will stretch for September. As of now, it looks like supply will lag behind demand," he said.

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