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Bloomberg
Maruti Suzuki India Ltd’s profit narrowed and earnings trailed estimates as a resurgent Covid-19 outbreak hit consumer demand in Asia’s third-largest economy.
Net income fell 9.3% to 11.7 billion rupees ($157 million) in the three months ended on March 31, the unit of Japan’s Suzuki Motor Corp said in a statement. That’s less than the average analyst estimate of 17 billion rupees, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Maruti’s production hasn’t been impacted by a surge in infections and the demand for personal transport will strengthen following the second wave, Chairman RC Bhargava said in a call. If the current demand situation continues, April-June should be “decent,†he said.
The automobile industry saw a broad recovery in demand in the January-March quarter from a year earlier, when the country was grappling with the first outbreak of the pandemic. Still, margins were pressured by higher input costs, though product price increases may have helped partially blunt the impact.