Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV) is expected to report a strong double-digit growth in truck sales for 2017 on the back of robust demand in the medium and heavy commercial vehicle (M&HCV) segment post-GST implementation.

Eric Nesselhauf, Managing Director and CEO, DICV, said 2017 would be remembered for BS-IV emission norms and the shift to GST were game-changers for the CV industry.

With the shift to GST, borderless pan-Indian transportation requires modern, fuel-efficient trucks with higher uptime.

DICV has reported a 26 per cent increase in sales of its BharatBenz trucks at 15,200 units during January-November 2017 over 2016.

Also, December 2017 proved to be one of the buoyant months for M&HCV sales for most of the companies.The company sold 13,081 units of BharatBenz trucks in 2016.

Though many attribute the high growth in sales in December 2017 to the low base of previous year when the industry was hit due to demonetisation.

But this time around, trucks sales were spurred by the January 1 deadline for rolling out trucks with air-conditioning systems (or ventilation system). Meanwhile, improved activity in road and mining sectors have been driving volumes in the past several months.

For DICV, 2017 will be its highest-ever sales in the five years since the launch of BharatBenz trucks in India.

“Daimler AG Annual Press Conference on February 1 will be the first occasion for the entire group to disclose details for FY2017,” said a DICV spokesperson.

However, in October 2017, Nesselhauf had told BusinessLine that the company would end 2017 with strong growth as its order books were full.

Also, the company introduced second production shift at its Oragadam factory near Chennai.

DICV has also been exporting Oragadam-built trucks to more than 40 markets in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

In West Asia, sales grew significantly by 31 per cent at 21,000 vehicles (January-November 2017).

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