HMSI plans to reduce waiting period to less than a month

B D Narayankar

Press Trust of India

Narsapura (Karnataka), Sep 29 (PTI) Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) today said it plans to cut down the waiting period for its bikes and scooters to less than one month from the present three months.

"We plan to bring down the waiting period for Honda bikes and scooters to less than a month. At present the waiting period for Activa, Shine and Unicorn is at least three months," HMSI Vice President (Sales and Marketing) N K Rattan told reporter.

He was here for the foundation laying ceremony of HMSI''s plant at Narsapura.
"The Manesar plant in Haryana is capable of producing 16 lakh units a year. It is obvious that when the production goes up from 16 lakh units to 22 lakh and then to 28 lakh by March 2012, there would be a drastic reduction in waiting period of all products," he said.

Replying to a question, HMSI President and CEO Keita Muramatsu said the company may have to review product prices to minimise the impact of escalating raw material costs.

"There has been a 15 per cent hike in prices of raw material over a year''s time," he said.

Muramatsu also said HMSI was planning to produce 500cc and 1000cc bikes for the Indian market.

"Since import duty is too high, we are planning 1000cc bikes for Indian two-wheeler market," he said.

The market for 1000cc bikes in India is pretty good and the company is confident of attracting customers, Rattan said.

HMSI, having 43 per cent market share in the domestic scooters segment, plans to enhance its capacity to 4 million in the next two years, Muramatsu said.
"We have 7.3 per cent share in Indian motorcycle segment and we are looking to increase sales in next two years."

Global meltdown has an impact on the sales of HMSI, but all the units are back to normal operations from September onwards, Honda Siel Cars India Private Limited President and CEO Takashi Nagai said.

All the units are back to normal operation either because of revival of problem plants or because of other measures taken by the company, he said.
"HMSI has not reduced production worldwide due to the slowdown," he added. .



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