Suzuki revises annual forecast upwards on strong India show

Japanese small car major Suzuki Motor Corporation today revised upwards its annual sales and profit forecast for the ongoing fiscal on the back of strong performance in its domestic market and India.

The company, which generates nearly half of its global vehicles sales in India, revised its operating income forecast for the 2017-18 fiscal to 300 billion yen as against an earlier forecast of 240 billion yen, up 25 percent.

Likewise, it has also increased its net sales forecast to 3,600 billion yen from the previous projection of 3,400 billion yen, an increase of 5.9 percent. In the first half of the ongoing fiscal, Suzuki Motor Corp (SMC) reported 49.7 percent jump in consolidated operating income at 172.88 billion yen as against 115.5 billion yen in the year-ago period.

Its net sales during the period were at 1,831.09 billion yen as compared to 1,498.95 billion yen, up 22.2 percent. "The consolidated results for FY2017 first six months were better than the previous forecast mainly because of improvement in result of Japan, India and Europe and depreciation of the yen, which became lower than the forecast foreign exchange rate," SMC said in a statement on its website. Commenting on the revision of the forecast, the company said it has been made to the previous forecast, "as a result of reflecting the difference for FY2017 first six months and reviewing the figures such as sales units and foreign exchange rates."

In the July-September quarter, the company's Indian arm Maruti Suzuki India posted sales 4,92,118 vehicles, including 34,717 in overseas markets, a growth of 17.6 percent over the same quarter a year ago.