NEW DELHI, Aug. 27 (Kyodo) — India's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. said Tuesday that the opening of its new plant in India's western state of Gujarat will be delayed due to the overall slowdown of the Indian economy and car market.
The company's chairman, R.C. Bhargava, stated that the Indian unit of Japan's Suzuki Motor Corp. will "miss the target" of commissioning its Gujarat plant by March 31, 2016.
"The slowdown in the auto sector is very acute," Bhargava told reporters after the company's 32nd annual general meeting.
The commissioning of the new plant would depend on sales projections in the years to come, he said. The company's original plans were to set up its third plant at an investment of $1.3 billion, and roll out 250,000 cars annually by 2015-2016 from it.
Once the Gujarat plant gets commissioned, Maruti intends to enhance its capacity from about 1.5 million units to 2 million units annually.