Largest car maker sees no reason for cheer in FY14

When asked if MSI is shifting its focus from Haryana, where it has recently witnessed severe labour unrest, Bhargava said: “We are not moving away from Haryana. We have two plants in the state and are going to Gujarat after utilising the capacity completely at Gurgaon and Manesar. We will do the same once we exhaust the capacity in Gujarat also." He said the company will do the ground breaking ceremony for the Gujarat facility early next year.

Commenting on exports, MSI managing director and CEO Shinzo Nakanishi said MSI is finding it tough due to the decline in European market. “Last year we had a total export of 1.27 lakh units. This year we may be a little less than that because of the slowdown in Europe, which used to be our biggest overseas market."

MSI has been exploring new markets to keep its overseas sales momentum, Nakanishi said. Bhargava added: “I don’t know when the European market will revive but we have been entering new markets like Algeria, which is one of our biggest now and we expect to sell around 25,000 units there."

The company has also been exporting both completely built units and completely knocked down units to Indonesia, amounting to about 40,000 units.

On the Sri Lankan market, Bhargava said sales have fallen by almost 50% this year due to the increase in import tariffs by the government there.

Asked whether the company would look to set up assembly operations overseas, he said: “It is possible

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