MUL Director, K Senga, told reporters here ``though there is a big competition in small car category, I hope we can continue to smile.''He said though the car sales market had witnessed a slump by 2.4 per cent, the sale of Maruti had increased by 1.7 per cent, which demonstrated that MUL had maintained a steady growth in the market.

Senga also ruled out the possibility of MUL entering into joint venture with any company in the near future and added that it was constantly expanding its dealership Maruti has reported a growth of 1.7 per cent in sales during the first five months of the current fiscal. The passenger car manufacturing company will maintain the growth this fiscal, though many small cars are entering the domestic market in a big way.

According to Jagdish Khattar, joint managing director, Maruti Udyog Ltd, the domestic car segment hasregistered a negative growth of 2.4 per cent during the period under review. However, during the first five months of the current fiscal Maruti's marketshare in India increased to 83.6 per cent from 80.6 per cent.

``The company will not cut prices of passenger cars in the country at this point of time. Our focus will be to enhance value addition to our products along with the setting up of new dealers across the country,'' he added.Addressing a press conference here on Sunday, K Senga, director (marketing and sales), Maruti Udyog Ltd, said that the company will export around 27,000 cars this fiscal. Around 85 per cent of the vehicles will go to Europe.

The major countries that the company will be concentrating for exports are Africa and South America.