Maruti Suzuki, India’s largest car manufacturer is planning to reduce its auto parts and component imports by 20 percent to increase profit margins. While the carmaker registered 20 percent import content in the fiscal 2012-13, it aims to cut down to 16 percent by March 2014.
The cost reduction measures by the Japanese automaker come after it reported a three-fold increase in post tax profits for the July – September 2013 quarter. Maruti Suzuki is attempting to maintain profitability and further boost profit margins in times of slowdown in the domestic market.
Commenting on the development, a senior company executive stated that the carmaker is pursuing aggressive localization in addition to focused cost reduction and value engineering to improve profits.
Meanwhile, the exports by the carmaker have increased by 66.6 percent in the July – September 2013 quarter allowing it to offset the material costs further enabled by the depreciation of Indian rupee.