NEW DELHI, Oct. 1 (Kyodo) — Maruti Suzuki India Ltd., the Indian arm of Japan's Suzuki Motor Corp., said Monday its domestic sales in September grew 12.7 percent from a year earlier to 88,801 new cars, after a sharp 35 percent drop in August affected by worker violence.
Sales have recovered to a pre-riot level as assembly lines resumed operating in late August at the violence-hit Manesar factory in the northern state of Haryana, while another factory operated at full capacity, according to Maruti Suzuki.
Maruti Suzuki said the factory's production has reached half the pre-riot level and is expected to rise to a level before the riot later this month.
The company is also eyeing raising wages and taking other steps to improve management-labor relations.
Maruti Suzuki, India's largest automaker, also said its fiscal 2012 half-year sales through September came to 473,218 units, almost unchanged from a year earlier. Ahead of the fall marketing season, the company is planning to aim at 1 million units in domestic annual sales for the third consecutive year.
Toyota Motor Corp.'s Indian unit, meanwhile, said September sales dropped 5.4 percent to 12,115 new cars, owing largely to slow sales of its strategic Etios compact car series.
