Maruti Suzuki India August Vehicle Sales Rise to Record on Economic Growth

Maruti Suzuki India Ltd., the nation’s biggest carmaker, posted record sales in August as rising disposable incomes in Asia’s second-fastest growing major economy boosted demand.

Sales rose 24 percent from a year earlier to 104,791 units last month, the New Delhi-based carmaker said in an e-mailed statement. Domestic demand surged 33 percent while exports declined 18 percent to 12,117 units, the company said.

The Indian unit of Suzuki Motor Corp. has posted 20 straight months of increase in sales as creation of new jobs enables more people to buy cars for the first time. Toyota Motor Corp., Volkswagen AG and Ford Motor Co. are among carmakers setting up plants and introducing new models in the country, where the government expects industrywide vehicle sales to more than double to 3 million annually by 2015.

Maruti gained 1.2 percent to 1,272.75 rupees at the close of trading in Mumbai.

India will overtake China as the world’s fastest-growing major economy as early as 2013 as it adds six times more workers to its labor pool than its northern neighbor, according to Morgan Stanley.

India had eight cars per 1,000 people in 2009, compared with 435 in the U.S., 231 in Russia and 24 in China, according consulting firm Ernst & Young said in February.

Maruti said last month it’s considering building a new factory with a capacity of between 250,000 and 300,000 vehicles a year. The automaker is already constructing a plant of a similar size nearby.

To contact the reporter on this story: Hari Govind at hgovind@bloomberg.net

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