Maruti Suzuki India Limited (NSE:MARUTI)
India flag India · Delayed Price · Currency is INR
13,320
+63 (0.48%)
Apr 30, 2026, 3:29 PM IST
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Q4 21/22

Apr 29, 2022

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Q4 FY22 earnings conference call of Maruti Suzuki India Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes.

Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Pranav Ambaprasad. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Pranav Ambaprasad
Deputy General Manager and Department Head, Investor Relations, Business Research, and ESG, Maruti Suzuki India

Thank you, Margaret. Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon once again. May I introduce you to the management team from Maruti Suzuki. Today we have with us our CFO, Mr. Ajay Seth. From corporate, we have Executive Director, Corporate Finance and Government Affairs, Mr. Rahul Bharti. Our General Manager, Corporate Strategy and Investor Relations, Mr. Nikhil Vyas. From finance, we have Executive Director, Mr. Pradeep Garg, Executive Advisor, Mr. D. D. Goyal, Executive Vice President, Mr. Sanjay Mathur, and Vice President, Mr. Dinesh Kumar Gandhi .

The conference call will begin with a brief statement on the performance and outlook of our business by Mr. Seth, after which we'll be happy to receive your questions. May I remind you of the safe harbor. We may be making some forward-looking statements that have to be understood in conjunction with uncertainty and risk that the company faces.

We'd also like to inform you that the call is being recorded and the audio recording and the transcript will be available on our website. Please note that in case of any inadvertent error during this live audio call, a transcript will be provided with the corrected information. I would now like to invite our CFO, Mr. Seth. Over to you, sir.

Ajay Seth
CFO, Maruti Suzuki India

Thanks, Pranav. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I hope you and your families are healthy and safe. The country is again witnessing an uptick in the amount of COVID cases in certain regions. We are closely monitoring the development and taking all precautionary steps in the best interest of the employees' health and safety, including that of our value chain partners. Let me start with some highlights of financial year 2021-22.

The company launched two new products, new Baleno and new Celerio. Besides the highly fuel-efficient powertrain, the company also offered many industry-first technological features in a compact segment car, such as heads-up display, telematics, 360-degree camera, hill hold assist to improve customer convenience and safety. In the new Baleno, the increased fuel efficiency coupled with the introduction of many technological features have increased its acceptability.

Since its launch in February 2022, new Baleno has received more than 80,000 bookings. During the year, the company also launched product refreshes in WagonR and extended its CNG product lineup with the introduction of Dzire CNG. The year saw customer preferences for CNG vehicles increasing further. The company sold over 230,000 CNG vehicles and registered highest ever sales for its CNG vehicles in any financial year.

The company continues to be the most preferred car brand in the country. In financial year 2021-22, eight of the top 10 best-selling passenger vehicles were from Maruti Suzuki stable. The company's highly successful MPV Ertiga joined the top 10 best-selling passenger vehicles for the first time. We thank our customers for their continued trust on our products.

We exported 238,376 vehicles in financial year 2021-22, which is the highest ever exports in any year by the company. The contribution of sales from non-urban markets in overall sales increased to 43.6% in financial year 2021-22.

With strong focus on non-urban markets, the company attained a milestone of cumulative sales of 5 million cars. In the month of March, our parent company, Suzuki Motor Corporation, through its subsidiary, Suzuki Motor Gujarat, signed a memorandum of understanding with the Government of Gujarat to invest INR 104 billion in BEV batteries and BEV manufacturing capacity. This investment will greatly support in localizing the EV manufacturing and help the company to accelerate and expand its BEV product portfolio in India. The company is planning to introduce its first BEV by 2025.

Taking a step towards a circular economy with the aim to promote the recycling of commodities, Maruti Suzuki and Toyota Tsusho group's vehicle scrapping and recycling unit commenced operations. To enhance customers' convenience and satisfaction when buying a car, the company introduced Maruti Suzuki Smart Finance last year. This online end-to-end real-time car financing facility is now available across the country, with 16 financiers offering the car financing facility.

During the year, through MSSF, cumulatively auto loans of INR 175 billion were disbursed to over 313,000 customers. On CSR, besides helping to quickly scale up the domestic manufacturing of PSA oxygen generators, along with its supplier partners, the company installed 25 PSA oxygen generator plants at various government hospitals in the country as part of CSR, comprising 11 plants from suppliers and 14 from the company.

Together with the help of its parent company, Suzuki Motor Corporation, donated 1,004 oxygen cylinders to various government hospitals. Coming to the business environment, just before the start of the financial year 2021-22, there was a sense of optimism driven by the good demand recovery of passenger vehicles in quarter three and four of the previous financial year.

While subsiding COVID-19 cases, there was a general feeling that the pandemic is nearing an end and a phase of good economic recovery is on the horizon. The business plans of the company were also oriented towards capturing the market opportunity to the fullest. Preparing the ground for growth, the third manufacturing plant in Gujarat, with a capacity of 250,000 units, was operationalized in April 2021.

However, the second wave of COVID-19 at the start of financial year created a disruption in the first quarter and electronic component shortage for the rest of the year. The company could not produce an estimated 270,000 vehicles, mostly domestic models, owing to electronic component shortage.

As at the end of the year, the company had pending customer orders of about 268,000 vehicles, for which it is making full efforts to fulfill at the earliest. During financial year 2021-22, the company's sales volumes in the domestic passenger vehicle market grew by 2.9%, including the sales of light commercial vehicles. The overall sales in the domestic market for the company grew by 3.2%.

The shortage of electronic components largely affected the production of vehicles sold in the domestic market and not as much the production of vehicles for exports. As a result, the company was able to fulfill the export orders and recorded the highest ever vehicle exports of 238,376 units. The supply situation of electronic component continues to be unpredictable. It might have some impact on the production volumes for 2022, 2023 as well.

On cost side challenges, the price of commodities such as steel, aluminum and precious metals registered an unprecedented increase during the year. The company was forced to increase prices of vehicles to partially offset the impact. The company continued to work on cost reduction efforts to minimize the impact to customers. Now let me talk about the financial results.

The company sold a total of 488,830 vehicles during the quarter, lower by 0.7% compared to the same period previous year. The sales in the domestic market stood at 420,376 units, a decline of 8% over that in Q4 financial year 2021.

The sales in the export markets were at 68,454 units, which is the highest ever in any quarter. During the quarter, the company registered net sales of INR 255,140 million rupees, an increase of 11.1% as compared to the same period in the previous year. With this, the operating profit for the quarter stood at INR 17,796 million, a growth of 42.4% over that of Q4 financial year 2021.

Net profit for the quarter stood at INR 18,389 million, higher by 57.7% compared to the same period last year. The company sold a total of 1,652,653 vehicles during the year, up 13.4% over the previous year. The sales in the domestic market stood at 1,414,277 units, an increase of 3.9% over financial year 2021. The company recorded its highest ever exports of 228,376 units in financial year 2021-22, compared to 96,139 units in financial year 2020-21. This was also about 62% higher than the peak exports in any financial year so far.

During the period, the company registered net sales of INR 837,981 million, compared to INR 665,621 million in the previous financial year. Despite a 26% increase in net sales, the net profit for the period declined by 11% over previous year to INR 27,663 million.

Though the profits in financial year 2021, 2022 were lower, the Board of Directors recommended a dividend of INR 60 per share on the face value of INR 5 per share, compared to INR 45 per share in last financial year. This is a special one-time gesture to thank shareholders for their patronage and support as the company commemorates its fortieth year since its inception. Thank you, and we are ready to take your questions, suggestions.

Operator

Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Anyone who would like to ask a question, please press star and one at this time. The first question is from the line of Raghunandhan NL from Emkay Global. Please go ahead.

Raghunandhan NL
Executive Director and Research Analyst, Nuvama Institutional Equities

Thank you, sir, for the opportunity. Congratulations on good set of numbers. Sir, firstly, on the order book side, you know, can you indicate what would be the current order book? I think MSIL has been indicating around 326,000. Also, can you share what was the retail in last quarter? My second question was, your peers have started launching hybrids. Would you be going ahead with hybrid launches in future? Would your upcoming SUVs have hybrid options?

Shashank Srivastava
Executive Director, Sales and Marketing, Maruti Suzuki India

You're right, the current order book is more than 3.2 lakh, and we hope we'll be able to fulfill these orders fast. We don't want our customers to be waiting. The retail number in quarter four, including LCV segment, is 372,000.

Raghunandhan NL
Executive Director and Research Analyst, Nuvama Institutional Equities

Thank you, sir.

Shashank Srivastava
Executive Director, Sales and Marketing, Maruti Suzuki India

To talk about hybrids. Hybrids are a very powerful technology which can work in conjunction along with EV to help reduce carbon and reduce oil import. They do about 30%-40% of the job of an EV and are many times more scalable. It would be an interesting option and we'll be looking forward to such technologies in the future.

Raghunandhan NL
Executive Director and Research Analyst, Nuvama Institutional Equities

Thank you, sir. Would you be able to quantify how severe could be the iron cost impact for June quarter, sir, given the last two months, commodity inflation?

Shashank Srivastava
Executive Director, Sales and Marketing, Maruti Suzuki India

Difficult to predict at this point in time as commodities have pumped up. Still we find increase in the steel cost because demand from steel buyers is significantly higher at this point in time, but it's under negotiation.

We find that the precious metals which have gone up earlier after the war, immediately after the war, have kind of now settled down. There are concerns on largely on steel and some other commodities like aluminum, copper, et cetera. It's difficult to now give you a guidance at this point in time. We are waiting and watching. It'll also depend on you know how demand and supply pans out in the near future.

Raghunandhan NL
Executive Director and Research Analyst, Nuvama Institutional Equities

Thank you, sir. I'll come back in the queue.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Kapil Singh from Nomura. Please go ahead.

Kapil Singh
Executive Director, Equity Research – Autos and Auto Parts, Nomura

Yeah. Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. First I wanted to check regarding the demand outlook for next year. You know, there has been an increase in oil prices, and some of the segments have shown a slowdown in rural consumption as well. You know, what are you seeing in terms of current situation on incoming order intake, particularly on rural side, for FY 2023?

Shashank Srivastava
Executive Director, Sales and Marketing, Maruti Suzuki India

Industry estimates of the passenger vehicle segment are between 34 lakhs-35 lakhs. Purely talking about pure demand. This is subject to supply-side constraints, so we'll have to look forward. Of course, we share a similar estimate of the industry.

Kapil Singh
Executive Director, Equity Research – Autos and Auto Parts, Nomura

Okay, thanks. The second question is on EVs. You know, one school of thought is that EVs could start to become significant much faster, you know. For example, market size of somewhere between 50,000-100,000 in the current financial year itself and 100,000+ in FY 2024. Perhaps, you know, market could directly graduate to EVs instead of hybrids. Just wanted your thoughts on this aspect.

Shashank Srivastava
Executive Director, Sales and Marketing, Maruti Suzuki India

If EVs grow, it is good for all, it is good for us also. As we have already announced, that we'll be having a production plan in Gujarat, we'll be there with localization. Secondly, it is not EV versus hybrid, it is EV and hybrid. There's a good synergy between them, and they both together help us achieve the aim. If penetration grows, it is good for all.

Kapil Singh
Executive Director, Equity Research – Autos and Auto Parts, Nomura

Okay. Lastly, could you share what is the average discount and inventory levels and also the spare parts sales?

Shashank Srivastava
Executive Director, Sales and Marketing, Maruti Suzuki India

Discounts were in this quarter at INR 11,150. They were lower compared to last year, same quarter was INR 16,642. In quarter three they were at about INR 15,000. They are much lower than the general average discounts that we have been incurring in the previous year, four quarters. I don't have the spare parts separate number with me now. We will get back to you.

Kapil Singh
Executive Director, Equity Research – Autos and Auto Parts, Nomura

Inventory?

Shashank Srivastava
Executive Director, Sales and Marketing, Maruti Suzuki India

The network stock was at about 40,000 cars as of end of quarter four, yes, as of beginning of April.

Kapil Singh
Executive Director, Equity Research – Autos and Auto Parts, Nomura

Thank you, sir.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Pramod Kumar from UBS. Please go ahead.

Pramod Kumar
Executive Director, Equity Research, UBS

Thanks a lot for the opportunity. My first question pertains to the export end of demand because it's been a phenomenal growth when the rest of the industry hasn't done that well in export this year. Just wanna understand what the outlook here because you do talk about order backlog numbers for the domestic market.

If you can help us understand, talk a bit more about the export opportunity here because whether it's these volumes and this kind of a growth is sustainable or not. What is the longer term view you have on the export opportunity as a percentage of your overall volumes?

If you can help us understand that, and also some bit of color on the end markets, what's the kind of countries where you are finding success and what more can be done with the new upcoming launch pipeline along with Toyota. If you can help us out, get more color on the export opportunity here.

Shashank Srivastava
Executive Director, Sales and Marketing, Maruti Suzuki India

Pramod, export is a good opportunity, and we've of course over the years, Maruti started exports into Europe way back in 1988, and we've been working all through. Since two years, we've also renewed effort, particularly in light of the government's focus on this area.

Primarily the reasons, the measures that we took that helped us become successful here were more products, a big increase in network presence, of course, the reach out through the Toyota channels and use of a lot of innovative domestic selling practices through distributors in these countries.

Pramod Kumar
Executive Director, Equity Research, UBS

Mm.

Shashank Srivastava
Executive Director, Sales and Marketing, Maruti Suzuki India

In terms of geographies, Africa turned out to be a big, the number one market, the continent of Africa, and the numbers have been going good. The positive part is that these levels are sustainable. Of course, we have grown steeply, so now we would like to consolidate a bit here. We will keep our position strong in exports in the future also.

Pramod Kumar
Executive Director, Equity Research, UBS

This is for Shashank-san on the domestic side. We've been talking about getting back to the 50% market share as early as possible. We've been lagging on the data for various other reasons, including semi, but competition has been navigating that problem better.

Just wanna understand, are there any timelines you have with the new launch pipeline coming in this year and next year? How quickly would you like to get back to the 50% volume share? The high 50% volume share this time around will also come with higher revenue share, given the way the industry has kind of premiumized and your product mix portfolio, which will premiumize. If you can help us understand how quickly can we get back to that 50% marker?

Shashank Srivastava
Executive Director, Sales and Marketing, Maruti Suzuki India

Of course, as a market leader our target will be to be at 50% market share or more. There are a number of factors responsible for this. One, the semiconductor shortage. You know, with the 3 lakh pending orders, if we service that, then the numbers and market share would be much higher .

Second, in the non-SUV segment, our market share is above 65%. It has gone up. In every segment other than SUVs, our market share has gone up. Whenever we launch SUVs, of course the market share has to improve. Now, launch is something, I mean, new products, we do not.

This year will be a good year in terms of launches, but specific information, we would like you to wait and see the excitement for yourself.

Pramod Kumar
Executive Director, Equity Research, UBS

Rahul-san, is it logically expected that 2024 is the year by when you should recoup most of the market share losses? Am I right? Because the launches will be live, you would have already spent on ramp-up and all of that, and semi situation will also normalize. Is it optimistic to expect that 2024 you should get back to that level?

Shashank Srivastava
Executive Director, Sales and Marketing, Maruti Suzuki India

We can't give you specific, you know, milestones or specific guidance, but you can be rest assured we are very enthusiastic here to get back market share.

Pramod Kumar
Executive Director, Equity Research, UBS

Last request, more than a question. Ajay-san, if you can help us provide more color on commodity because some of the other auto companies have been more kind of sharing more color in terms of what the kind of expected cost inflation for 1Q, what they're expecting.

Because we've seen commodity benefit in 4Q. A lot of this will reverse out. If you can just help us understand the near-term headwinds in terms of what the kind of improvement what you're seeing and what the kind of expected price cost inflation, what will play out in the first quarter or so. If you can anything which you can provide there, that will be very helpful, sir.

Ajay Seth
CFO, Maruti Suzuki India

From whatever discussions that we've been having with our supply chain colleagues, we understand that the steel is almost 50% of the commodity exposure that we have. Steel is firming up. There is obviously these steelmakers are asking for a big price increase, which is obviously under negotiation at this point in time.

We do expect that in the first quarter or in the first half, there will be increase in, as far as steel is concerned. That's one part. The precious metals have surged higher earlier after cooling down. They again went up because of the Russia war, but they have now again cooled down. We don't see, at this point in time, too much impact of precious metals.

There are some because of some commodities which are gasoline-based, there we see some increase there as well. It's a mixed bag where some commodities are now kind of stable and some commodities we see increase. Overall, I think the commodity will go up. It's very difficult for me to give you a number at this point in time by how much, but definitely there will be an increase in commodities in the first quarter.

Pramod Kumar
Executive Director, Equity Research, UBS

I just How much is the improvement in 4Q over 3Q? There will be a bit of improvement because of the Gujarat ramp-up itself. Your acquisition cost comes down as the volume ramp up. Except that pure commodity, what are the kind of changes in 4Q versus 3Q? You used to kind of share that number earlier in terms of directionally as to what being the delta from commodity.

Ajay Seth
CFO, Maruti Suzuki India

In terms of, see, the impact of ramping up capacities will really be on the operating leverage, which you can see in the results in the fourth quarter are better because you had a better operating leverage compared to the earlier quarters.

Pramod Kumar
Executive Director, Equity Research, UBS

Mm-hmm.

Ajay Seth
CFO, Maruti Suzuki India

Right? In terms of commodities, there has not been any reduction in quarter four on account of commodities. Whatever commodity reductions happened, which is very small, has been also offset because of other factors. Because we had to do some market purchase of semiconductors and things like that. There has not been any impact of commodities in quarter, from quarter three to quarter four.

Pramod Kumar
Executive Director, Equity Research, UBS

That's understood. Thanks a lot.

Ajay Seth
CFO, Maruti Suzuki India

It's rather gone down.

Pramod Kumar
Executive Director, Equity Research, UBS

Yeah. Thanks a lot for that, sir. Take care. Best of luck.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Yogesh Aggarwal from HSBC. Please go ahead.

Yogesh Aggarwal
Managing Director and Head of India Equity Research, HSBC Securities and Capital Markets

Yeah, hi. Hello, everyone. Just two quick questions. Firstly for Ajay, sir. I think chairman talked about INR 50 billion CapEx for FY 2023, and I saw free cash flow last year itself was pretty weak. I think it was a negative free cash flow.

Anything around that, what led to this weakness in free cash flow and what, sir, you think about FY 2023? Secondly, wanted to ask on CNG. I remember large share of the order book was CNG last few quarters. What do you think of the supply just around CNG in terms of monthly run rate? How much can we achieve in the coming months? Thank you.

Ajay Seth
CFO, Maruti Suzuki India

CapEx of INR 5,000 crore is something that we've committed for the next year. These are various projects including the new model launches, et cetera. Besides this, the point that you made on cash flows, there was an incremental increase in the overall cash from previous year to this year. No, there was no increase in cash flow.

But what I think we need to look at also is the impact that we had on our working capital last year because the activity was down. Therefore, the negative working capital that we used to get squeezed last year and all of that. This year, if the volumes go up, then of course there will be a release of working capital.

To that extent, we will see the cash going up again. I think we'll be able to manage INR 5,000 crore through our internal generation during the year, and we should not see any reduction in terms of our overall cash flow numbers.

Yogesh Aggarwal
Managing Director and Head of India Equity Research, HSBC Securities and Capital Markets

Okay. Thanks, sir. On CNG?

Ajay Seth
CFO, Maruti Suzuki India

CNG

Shashank Srivastava
Executive Director, Sales and Marketing, Maruti Suzuki India

Just give me a second.

Ajay Seth
CFO, Maruti Suzuki India

This cash flow that I'm talking about is for the year 2022-2023. 2021-2022, you would have seen a dip because of the reasons I gave you. I'm now saying that in 2022-2023, with incremental activity and the negative working capital cycle that we work with, we should be able to add some more cash in the balance sheet. Okay.

Yogesh Aggarwal
Managing Director and Head of India Equity Research, HSBC Securities and Capital Markets

Thanks. Sir, just to confirm, this -INR 13 billion reval of debt mutual fund, that doesn't hit P&L, right? Going forward, that's just, that'll normalize with time.

Ajay Seth
CFO, Maruti Suzuki India

Which one?

Yogesh Aggarwal
Managing Director and Head of India Equity Research, HSBC Securities and Capital Markets

The negative valuation on debt mutual funds.

Ajay Seth
CFO, Maruti Suzuki India

No, no. We have to do mark to market every quarter.

Yogesh Aggarwal
Managing Director and Head of India Equity Research, HSBC Securities and Capital Markets

Yeah.

Ajay Seth
CFO, Maruti Suzuki India

Whatever is the impact on account of mark-to-market, that's reflected in the P&L each quarter.

Yogesh Aggarwal
Managing Director and Head of India Equity Research, HSBC Securities and Capital Markets

Yeah. It's already gone through. Okay.

Ajay Seth
CFO, Maruti Suzuki India

Yeah.

Shashank Srivastava
Executive Director, Sales and Marketing, Maruti Suzuki India

On CNG, almost about 40% of the backlog, the pending orders are on CNG, so the waitlist is slightly higher. This is because of semiconductor chips. We'll try to service these orders.

Yogesh Aggarwal
Managing Director and Head of India Equity Research, HSBC Securities and Capital Markets

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Kumar Rakesh from BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.

Kumar Rakesh
Associate Director, Equity Research, BNP Paribas

Hi, good evening to you, ma'am. Thank you for taking my question. First of all, thank you to Mr. Srivastava and team for quantifying the number of model launches and refreshes this year. It gives a very useful directional trends to us about the product interventions. My first question was about the historical seasonality which we have seen in this June quarter, where the volume typically dips from the last quarter. Given that we are sitting with-

Shashank Srivastava
Executive Director, Sales and Marketing, Maruti Suzuki India

Sorry, can you speak louder, please? It's not clear.

Kumar Rakesh
Associate Director, Equity Research, BNP Paribas

Yeah. Sorry. Can you hear me? Is this better?

Shashank Srivastava
Executive Director, Sales and Marketing, Maruti Suzuki India

Slightly.

Operator

Mr. Rakesh, if possible, can you come closer to the phone and on handset mode? I'm not sure if you're on speaker.

Kumar Rakesh
Associate Director, Equity Research, BNP Paribas

Sure, I can do that.

Operator

Thank you.

Kumar Rakesh
Associate Director, Equity Research, BNP Paribas

My question was first on the-

Operator

Sorry, your voice is breaking right now. We cannot hear you clearly. Rakesh, we lost your audio. Please confirm if you can hear us. Rakesh, please unmute yourself and confirm. He seems to have lost his line. While we wait for him to join back, we'll take the next question, which is from the line of Amyn Pirani from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.

Amyn Pirani
Executive Director, Equity Research, J.P. Morgan

Yes. Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. Firstly, just a bookkeeping question. What was the Gujarat volumes in this quarter?

Operator

Members of the management, we cannot hear you.

Shashank Srivastava
Executive Director, Sales and Marketing, Maruti Suzuki India

Oh, sorry. Gujarat was about 165,000. We were muted. In the quarter.

Amyn Pirani
Executive Director, Equity Research, J.P. Morgan

Yeah, sorry. Thank you. My second question was, in this quarter we've seen a sharp jump in other operating income. Is there anything that you would like to highlight here as to, or is it just volume linked?

Shashank Srivastava
Executive Director, Sales and Marketing, Maruti Suzuki India

Some of this is increase in the scrap sales rates, et cetera, so the income has gone up because of that. There is one special item of about INR 100 crore, which is basically grouping issue, which is coming in income as well as in expense.

The way it has to be shown in accounting, it has to be shown in expense as well as in income. You can't net it off. In this quarter, you're seeing that you know exceptional INR 100 crore coming in expenses as well as in other income, other operating income.

Amyn Pirani
Executive Director, Equity Research, J.P. Morgan

Okay. That's related to you maintaining the same ex-showroom price across the country and the GST thing. Is that related to that?

Shashank Srivastava
Executive Director, Sales and Marketing, Maruti Suzuki India

No. It's not to do with that. That's one reason, but it's to do with some other adjustment in accounting that has been done for expense and income.

Amyn Pirani
Executive Director, Equity Research, J.P. Morgan

Okay.

Shashank Srivastava
Executive Director, Sales and Marketing, Maruti Suzuki India

Therefore you find this, gap in this quarter. I think it will get normalized moving forward.

Amyn Pirani
Executive Director, Equity Research, J.P. Morgan

Sure. Thank you. I'll come back in the queue.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Joseph George from IIFL. Please go ahead.

Joseph George
Equity Research Analyst, IIFL Institutional Equities

Hi. Thank you for the opportunity. I have two questions. One is in relation to the retail number that you gave for the third quarter. On one hand, you mentioned that you have a very strong order book. What I noticed is that the retails that you gave for the quarter was about 373,000, which is about 30,000 lower than the wholesale. Why is you know that kind of a mismatch when you have such a strong order book? Hello?

Operator

Members of the management, please unmute your line.

Shashank Srivastava
Executive Director, Sales and Marketing, Maruti Suzuki India

Okay. See, we have only about 40,000 closing stock. To that extent, we have to work with variants and colors, et cetera. That's the reason.

Joseph George
Equity Research Analyst, IIFL Institutional Equities

Okay. It's got to do with the mix impact. Got it. Does it mean that at the end of December you had near zero levels of inventories? I mean, approximate.

Shashank Srivastava
Executive Director, Sales and Marketing, Maruti Suzuki India

Last year we were working with good level of inventories. Now our inventories are thinned out.

Joseph George
Equity Research Analyst, IIFL Institutional Equities

Okay. All right. Got it. The second thing I want to check was with respect to the chip issue. So you mentioned that you expect some impact in FY 2023 as well, but would it be possible to indicate you know what % would be the hit?

So in the past I remember in September, October, November, you used to put out press releases saying that in the next month you would you know work at 80% of your planned production or 90% of your planned production. Similarly, would it be possible for you to indicate what the near-term outlook is? If your planned production is X because of chip shortage, how much would it come down by?

Shashank Srivastava
Executive Director, Sales and Marketing, Maruti Suzuki India

The situation is quite dynamic. What we have done is, we have given a general statement through the years that this will be a challenge and, we will keep trying to maximize our numbers. Last year, you know, in one particular month, we were at 40%, 60%, so it was important to make a disclosure. Generally, chips will continue to be a challenge in this year also. Of course, we'll try to maximize our numbers.

Joseph George
Equity Research Analyst, IIFL Institutional Equities

Understood. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Kumar Rakesh from BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.

Kumar Rakesh
Associate Director, Equity Research, BNP Paribas

Hi. Thank you. Sorry for earlier. My first question is that historically we have noticed a seasonality in June quarter where the volume declines from March level. Given that we have a very strong order book, should we expect that usual seasonality should not be there in the June quarter, assuming no incremental impact on the semiconductor supply issue?

Shashank Srivastava
Executive Director, Sales and Marketing, Maruti Suzuki India

This time the determining factor will be semiconductors. Of course, demand exists. At the moment, demand is good. We'll have to go by supply.

Kumar Rakesh
Associate Director, Equity Research, BNP Paribas

Right. Second question was around exports. We have seen pretty strong ramp-up there. At the same time, we are running a very large order book in the domestic market. Any strategic reason for prioritizing the export markets over the domestic market?

Shashank Srivastava
Executive Director, Sales and Marketing, Maruti Suzuki India

No, no. It is not a question of our strategizing. It's a question of chip availability. The specs are different. The sources of chips in the export models are different. If we had an option, we would obviously, you know, have the domestic market first. Since we could not produce those domestic models and the chip shortage did not affect the export models, therefore, we used the export opportunity.

Kumar Rakesh
Associate Director, Equity Research, BNP Paribas

Understood. Then finally, clarification on the order book part. You said that current order book is more than 320,000 units. That's more than 50,000 increase in less than a month's time. Has that the underlying demand significantly accelerated or our production is faster than where it was earlier in this year?

Shashank Srivastava
Executive Director, Sales and Marketing, Maruti Suzuki India

It's a new Baleno also.

Kumar Rakesh
Associate Director, Equity Research, BNP Paribas

Okay.

Shashank Srivastava
Executive Director, Sales and Marketing, Maruti Suzuki India

We have.

Kumar Rakesh
Associate Director, Equity Research, BNP Paribas

So it's a-

Shashank Srivastava
Executive Director, Sales and Marketing, Maruti Suzuki India

We have the Ertiga and the XL6 launch also.

Kumar Rakesh
Associate Director, Equity Research, BNP Paribas

Oh, got it. Got it. It would be a bunch of options for things. Got it. Thank you. I'll fall back into queue.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Pramod Amthe from InCred Capital. Please go ahead.

Pramod Amthe
Head of Institutional Equity Research, InCred Capital

Yeah, hi. Congrats on good set of numbers. First question is with regard to your standing on CAFE for FY 2022. What's the number you were able to achieve on CO2 1? And what's the if you can give us some color in terms of how does CNG helps you versus gasoline or the other mode of fuels to reach this goal?

Shashank Srivastava
Executive Director, Sales and Marketing, Maruti Suzuki India

It was not very clear, but if I got you right, so Maruti is best positioned among all car manufacturers on CO2 as measured by the CAFE norm. We have the least CO2 weighted average number for our entire fleet, and we hope to keep our leadership there. On your question on CNG, it helps us give about a 20%-25% benefit in CO2 with respect to gasoline.

Pramod Amthe
Head of Institutional Equity Research, InCred Capital

Okay. Would you like to disclose where your CO2 stands for FY 2022, and is it substantially below norms?

Shashank Srivastava
Executive Director, Sales and Marketing, Maruti Suzuki India

These figures come into the public domain on the website, on the government website, MORTH website. The last figure we had was about 113 grams per kilometer weighted average.

Pramod Amthe
Head of Institutional Equity Research, InCred Capital

Okay, thanks. Second question is with regard-

Shashank Srivastava
Executive Director, Sales and Marketing, Maruti Suzuki India

Sorry. I'd like to qualify. We have to keep in mind that after BS6, the measurement of CO2 has become more stringent. The CO2 numbers with the BS6 methodology and the BS4 methodology are not comparable.

Pramod Amthe
Head of Institutional Equity Research, InCred Capital

Okay. Sure. You are saying it will go up just because of BS6 and then with your efforts it has come down.

Shashank Srivastava
Executive Director, Sales and Marketing, Maruti Suzuki India

BS6 makes it more stringent to achieve CO2 reduction. The same model if tested on BS6 methodology will show higher CO2.

Pramod Amthe
Head of Institutional Equity Research, InCred Capital

Sure. Thanks, Shashank . Second is with regard to the CapEx side. You have already done this year, FY 2022, a big number. I think it's because of the new land acquisition, and you're guiding for, again, a lumpy number. Would you also give in terms of where this is going to be spent, and incrementally, where is it going into, if you have to look at the two years back and where are you spending and directionally where it will take you?

Second, related to the same is, you have one under the component PLI. What is the effort there? What is the CapEx commitment towards the same, and how it will strengthen Maruti over next three to four years?

Shashank Srivastava
Executive Director, Sales and Marketing, Maruti Suzuki India

I'll take the PLI question first. We had applied along with our you know sister company SMG in the auto scheme, and we had applied in the auto component scheme also. SMG EV scheme and the component scheme have been approved.

The government has a threshold of investment for every year. We will be meeting that requirement. In fact, if you go by the recent announcement, our total investment will be, it's about INR 10,000 crore on the EV and its battery. That we'll be going ahead with.

Pramod Amthe
Head of Institutional Equity Research, InCred Capital

Specific to the component, because that will flow through the Maruti, right, balance sheet where we need to be focused on. Which areas you plan to focus?

Shashank Srivastava
Executive Director, Sales and Marketing, Maruti Suzuki India

The component scheme will be on Maruti balance sheet.

Pramod Amthe
Head of Institutional Equity Research, InCred Capital

Right.

Shashank Srivastava
Executive Director, Sales and Marketing, Maruti Suzuki India

The EV PLI is on SMG balance sheet.

Pramod Amthe
Head of Institutional Equity Research, InCred Capital

Where you are only unique in terms of doing the component spend, right, compared to other car makers or auto makers. Hence, wanted to know where is that effort going to be and how your localization can change or the cost of producing them can drastically change over 3-4 years. If you can give some colors.

Shashank Srivastava
Executive Director, Sales and Marketing, Maruti Suzuki India

Components, other manufacturers have also applied for components also. There's a long list of components where you can. It's called AAT, Advanced Automotive Technology. We can club more technologies. We had applied for CNG.

Pramod Amthe
Head of Institutional Equity Research, InCred Capital

Okay, sure. Thanks a lot for this.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, due to time constraints, that was the last question for today. We thank all the participants for joining this conference call. On behalf of Maruti Suzuki India Limited, we thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.

Shashank Srivastava
Executive Director, Sales and Marketing, Maruti Suzuki India

Thank you.

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