Maruti Suzuki dominates domestic car sales but struggles in exports

Key highlights:

• Maruti Suzuki's exports declined by 36.3% in May
• Lost second place to Ford India in 2016 in exports
• Aims to be top passenger vehicle exporter from India

Maruti Suzuki has seen a large 15.5% growth in its passenger vehicles and cars segments in May. It's total domestic sales grew in May 2017 grew to 1,30,676 units from 1,13,162 units during the corresponding month last year.

ALSO READ: Maruti Suzuki posts 15.5% rise in car sales in May

This was due to strong growth in SUV segment led by strong response for new launches such as the Vitara Brezza, which continues to drive the company's sales growth.

The largest car manufacturer in India, Maruti Suzuki, has seen a tremendous growth in its domestic sales month on month, even when other car markers in the automobile sector had been struggling. However, when it comes to its comes to exports, its sales seems to be volatile.

In May, Maruti Suzuki's exports sales declined by a large 36.3% to fall to 6,286 units sold in comparison to 9,872 units sold in the same month last year.

A month earlier in April too it posted a decline of 29.4% in its exports. Maruti Suzuki's exports declined to 6,723 units in April 2017 from 9,524 units in April 2016.

In March it however managed to post a 12.6% growth in exports as export sales grew to 11,764 units in March 2017 in comparison to 10,450 units in the same month last year. But a month earlier in February to that Maruti Suzuki's export sales grew by a low 2.2%.

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Maruti Suzuki's export sales in the two months prior to this, ie December 2016 and January 2017, it posted high growth. While in January 2017 it's export sales rose by a large 44.8%, in December 2016 it saw an even higher 47.1% growth in export sales.

However, November 2016 it once again had seen a decline in export sales. It's export market sales had slumped by 9.8% to 9,225 units from 10,225 units sold in November 2015.

This shows the volatility of Maruti Suzuki's export sales over the last few months.

While Maruti Suzuki aims to become the largest passenger vehicle exporter from the country, it had seen a major setback in 2016 as its exports declined by 15.2%. This resulted in it falling to third place in terms of car exporters from India, behind Ford India jumping to second spot from fourth due to 39.2% rise in exports during the year.

Maruti Suzuki exported 1,07,205 units in 2016 in comparison to 1,26,422 units in 2015.

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Hyundai Motor, which is at second place in terms of domestic sales, has occupied the top spot for exports from India. Despite exports of Hyundai falling by 9.6%, it still managed to retain its top spot in the export market.

Hyundai exported 1,51,266 units in January – December 2016 in comparison too 1,67,268 units in 2015.

Automobile exports in India declined by 5% in 2016, however this was primarily due to decline in exports of two-wheelers and three-wheelers to export markets such as Latin America and Africa.