Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Thursday, Mar 13, 2003
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Thursday, Mar 13, 2003 |
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Industry & Economy
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Automobiles Budget hopes drive down car sales during Feb Our Bureau
NEW DELHI, March 12 DOMESTIC passenger car sales fell 22.7 per cent in February as consumers postponed their purchases in anticipation of a price decline following an excise duty reduction in the Budget. After eight successive months of growth, total sales fell to 37,446 cars from 48,444 cars in February last year, data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) showed. Cumulative (April 2002-February 2003) sales stood higher by about 5.2 per cent at 4,73,921 cars against 4,50,289 units in the year-ago period. Almost all the players recorded a dip in car sales during February, with Tata Engineering being the sole exception. Driven by sales of its newly-launched car, the Indigo, Tata Engineering sales grew 4.34 per cent to 6,802 units. The company sold about 1,772 units of Indigo in February.
Meanwhile, sales of the country's largest car manufacturer, Maruti Udyog, declined by 24.3 per cent to 19,012 units in February. Sales of Hyundai Motor India also went down by about 20.4 per cent to 6,887 units. Out of the 11 automobile companies surveyed, about half have witnessed a sales decline of more than 30 per cent in the month. Sales of commercial vehicles though continued their upward trend and grew by 40.5 per cent to 19,527 units in February. Cumulative sales in the segment jumped by 33.5 per cent to 1,69,033 vehicles. While sales of medium and heavy (M&H) truck and bus sales zoomed by 51.3 per cent to 12,712 units, light commercial vehicle increased by 24 per cent to 6,815 units. In the M&H segment, almost all the major players including Ashok Leyland, Tata Engineering and Mahindra & Mahindra saw good growth. In the utility vehicle category, both Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) and Toyota Kirloskar recorded growth, driven primarily by new launches in the segment. While M&M's sales grew by about 22.9 per cent, sales for Toyota more than doubled in the segment in February 2003. Sales of Tata Engineering and Maruti Udyog though saw a decline. Bikes ride high: Motorcycle sales continued to be on a positive run, increasing 15.4 per cent to 308,994 units in February from 267,790 units in the same month last year. Major manufacturers such as Bajaj Auto, TVS Motors, and Kinetic Engineering saw good growth, ranging from 18 per cent to 30 per cent. However, LML riding on strong demand for its recently-launched 110-cc model `Freedom' saw its sales more than quadruple to 18,815 units in February. The only player, which did not see growth in the segment was Yamaha, with its sales declining 44.7 per cent to 11,805 units. Though sales in the scooter and scooterette segment declined by 6.4 per cent to 60,544 units in February, the relatively new players (such as Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI), TVS Motors and Kinetic Engineering) in the category achieved good growth due to launches of automatic models. Sales of HMSI and TVS Motors went up by 137.8 and 15.5 per cent respectively, while Kinetic Engineering posted a 250.4 per cent sales growth in the period.
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