Suzuki to invest Rs 5700 crore in Gujarat plant

This investment will be utilised to set up a third assembly line that is expected be completed by 2020.

Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC) will be investing 100 billion yen (Rs 5,700 crore) in its subsidiary Maruti Suzuki India Limited’s (MSIL) Gujarat facility. This bit of information was revealed by Nikkei - the stock market index for the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Reports suggest that this investment is over and above the Rs 8,500 crore that the company brought in to set up the Gujarat facility in 2015. Production commenced at the Hansalpur (near Ahmedabad) plant earlier this year in February. The company made more than 4,000 units in the first month which increased to over 8,000 units in March 2017. While production at the Gujarat plant has commenced, SMC has been looking to increase it. As part of their expansion plan, the company is also readying a second production line that is likely to be functional by 2019. An investment of Rs 2,600 crore was made by SMC to establish this production line.

With Maruti Suzuki’s sales and exports amounting to more than 50 percent of Suzuki’s global sales, the importance of the Indian market for SMC is easily evident. And that is exactly the reason why the company has announced an additional investment of Rs 5,700 crore for a third production line in Gujarat. This new line is expected to be set up by 2020.

Of the top 10 best-selling cars in India, seven come from the house of Maruti Suzuki. In India, Maruti Suzuki holds more than 52 percent market share, comfortably clear of second-placed Hyundai holding just over 16 percent.