Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL), the largest car maker in the Indian market that is struggling with mounting waiting period of its popular car Maruti Swift, is looking to clear the order backlog of over 1,00,000 Swift models by the end of this financial year.
It is to be mentioned here that Maruti Suzuki has launched its Swift model in the country on August 17th 2011, and its booking figures have crossed 1,20,000 mark since then. The situation had become worse for Maruti after workers at its Manesar plant went on a series of strikes in the period of June to October 2011, causing huge production losses to the firm. While the revenue loss due to these strikes stood over Rs 1,500 crores, the total production loss was of 50,000 cars. The worker’s strikes at company’s Manesar plant came at a time, when the company was receiving huge bookings for newly launched premium hatchback Maruti Swift.
In a recent statement, Maruti Suzuki Managing Executive Officer Mr. M M Singh said, "We expect to make around 18,000-20,000 Swift units a month as soon as the second line at Manesar becomes fully operational by January. It should take four-five months to clear the backlog. By January, the second line will have no bottlenecks, so I would expect capacity to go up to 800-900 units a day, depending on the demand."
