Suzuki, Japan’s top maker of minivehicles, forecast on Wednesday a 2% rise in global car output in 2004 as it counts on better sales in the lacklustre domestic market, Reuters reported.
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
The report said Suzuki, one-fifth owned by General Motors, expects to build 1.935 million vehicles excluding motorcycles this year, with a 3% rise in domestic output to 949,000 units – it expects overseas output to remain unchanged at 986,000 units.
“It’s going to be a tough year, but we will aim for a 2% rise in Japanese minicar sales through better marketing,” Suzuki president Hiroshi Tsuda told Reuters.
He reportedly said he expected the overall market for 660cc minivehicles, which account for one-third of total vehicle sales in Japan, to be unchanged at about 1.8 million units in 2004
Reuters said Suzuki, Japan’s fourth-biggest vehicle maker by stock value, is expected to post record profits this business year ending March 31, mainly aided by a sales surge in Asia.
But Reuters noted that, while Suzuki remained Japan’s top seller of minivehicles for the 31st straight year in 2003 with a 31% market share, its sales fell 2% from 2002, losing out to rival Daihatsu, whose sales jumped 8.7%.
Reuters said Suzuki also fared poorly in the United States, where retail sales fell 14%.
For this year, the report added, it forecast a 40% sales jump in the United States on a wholesale level to 95,000 units, driven by a better model line-up with the new Reno five-door crossover, unveiled at the motor show in Detroit this month.
“Until now we didn’t have the right products,” executive vice president Sokichi Nakano, also head of American Suzuki Motor Corp, told Reuters.
He reportedly said Suzuki aimed to build a strong sales network with the help of a few experts from GM, boosting the number of US dealerships to 600 from the current 470 within two years. Poor performers — estimated as making up more than half the total -would be replaced in the process, he told the news agency.
According to Reuters, Suzuki said it would also pour more money into the promising Indian car market – at least 10 billion yen ($US94 million) annually over the next three to five years – to ensure continued growth.
Reuters noted that Suzuki tool a 54.2% stake in formerly state-owned Maruti Udyog, India’s dominant car maker, last year and said it would continue to streamline its operations, including through headcount reductions and more automation at its factories.
“If we renew our facilities and introduce more machines, we would be able to halve our workforce,” chairman Osamu Suzuki, who is known for his penny-pinching skills, told Reuters.
Suzuki reportedly said spending would also go towards bringing more modern cars into India, adding that he wanted to remodel the [1980s Alto-based] Maruti 800 minicar, which is still India’s best-selling car despite being around for 20 years.
Executives told Reuters the aim would be to wean owners of the Maruti 800, also India’s cheapest car, off the model and shift to the more expensive Alto 1000 model.
