Maruti to jack up prices amid rising input costs

THE country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) on Monday said it will increase prices of its entire product portfolio in the second quarter of the current fiscal due to rise in prices of various essential commodities, including steel. The auto major, which has already taken a price increase in April this financial year, noted that the price of steel and various precious metals has gone up considerably prompting the company to pass on some of the impact to the customers.

"The prices of steel and precious metals like rhodium and palladium have gone up substantially. In April we passed on a part of the increased input costs to consumers thinking that the prices of these essential commodities will come down eventually. But that has not happened and as a last resort we are doing it to safeguard the company's financial health," MSI Executive Director (Sales and Marketing) Shashank Srivastava said.

He noted that the price of steel has gone up from Rs 38 per kg to Rs 68 per kg while that of rhodium has gone up from Rs 19,000 per gram to about Rs 66,000 per gram thus impacting the production cost.

Rhodium and palladium are used in the catalysers and their demand has gone up manifold due to the introduction of stricter emission norms across the world.

"There is no signal that prices of steel and precious metals would come down, in fact it is increasing. We are not in a position to absorb the impact and therefore would pass on some of it to the consumers in the July-September quarter," Srivastava noted. The company is currently doing internal calculations regarding the price hike for different models, he added. Earlier in a regulatory filing MSI stated: "Over the past year the cost of the company's vehicles continue to be adversely impacted due to increase in various input costs. Hence, it has become imperative for the company to pass on some impact of the above additional cost to customers through a price rise." The price rise has been planned in the second quarter of the fiscal and it would vary for different models. On April 16, Maruti Suzuki had announced the weighted average price increase in ex-showroom prices (Delhi) across models of 1.6 per cent. On January 18 this year, the automaker had announced price hike of select models by up to Rs 34,000 due to rise in input costs. MSI sells a range of models from entry-level hatchback Alto to S-Cross, priced between Rs 3 lakh and Rs 12.39 (ex-showroom prices Delhi) lakh, respectively.

Maruti to jack up prices amid rising input costs