50 percent increase in Pak Suzuki profits

Motor Company Limited earned Rs 3.35 billion profit after tax in 2006 (January to December) against Rs 2.236 billion earned in 2005, with a healthy growth of 50 percent. The 24th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the company, held here on Wednesday approved 50 percent bonus shares.
The meeting was told that the company''''s production volume increased to 114,214 units in the period under review against 86,421 units in the previous year, while the sales increased to 112,173 units in 2006 against 86,602 units in 2005.
The sales revenue of the company surged to Rs 47,187.945 million in 2006 against Rs 35,374.556 in 2005, while the gross profit of the company in 2006 increased to Rs 5,560.733 million against Rs 3,572.956 million in 2005.
Pak Suzuki Managing Director and CEO Kenichi Ayukawa said that Pakistan''''s automobile industry has become a major contributor to GDP. The industry for cars and light commercial vehicles witnessed a growth of 17 percent during the calendar year 2006. The industry produced 198,504 units during the year against 170,131 units in 2005. The manufacturers have made significant investments for capacity expansions, which reduced the gap between demand and supply and, resultantly, the waiting period also reduced.
The consistent growth in GDP, lower interest rates and introduction of state-of-the-art models led to substantial increase in the demand for cars. He said that automobile industry "is mother of all industries" and its growth would benefit all sectors of the economy.
Kenichi Ayukawa while talking to media after the meeting said that production at the company''''s plant had increased by 32 percent and, during the year, 114,214 units were produced, against 86,421 units in 2005. Sales volume of the company increased by 30 percent and 112,173 units were sold in 2006 against 86,602 units sold in 2005.
He said that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had inaugurated the capacity expansion facilities at Pak Suzuki plant on February 6, 2007. With this inauguration, the production capacity increased to 150,000 vehicles per annum. Since 2003, capacity had increased by 200 percent. During this period the company invested Rs 4.5 billion on expansion, modernisation, balancing of operations, introduction of new models and upgradation of existing models.
He said that the automobile industry in Pakistan has enormous potential because of rising trend in GDP and low motorization level which is seven vehicles per thousand persons, which is far below the world norms of around 100 vehicles per thousand persons.