G BALACHANDAR Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV) has ended 2018 with its highest-ever growth and annual sales, riding on strong demand in the Indian medium and heavy commercial vehicle (M&HCV) segment.

The truck and bus manufacturing arm of German auto major Daimler registered growth of 35 per cent in the sales of BharatBenz trucks at 22,532 units in India during 2018, against 16,717 units in 2017, according to a company document.

The growth rate of DICV was significantly higher than the nationwide M&HCV industry growth of 26 per cent (3.57 lakh units).

The company bucked the trend in the fourth quarter of 2018, too.

‘It registered a growth of 16 per cent at 5,293 units during the December quarter, which turned out to be a sluggish one for the M&HCV industry due to liquidity and other issues.

The M&HCV segment (above 16-tonne vehicles) across the country reported a decline of 18 per cent at about 51,400 units during the December quarter after recording a growth of 30 per cent and 110 per cent in the September and June quarters respectively.

Even though DICV managed to maintain its growth momentum, its market share fell to 7 per cent in 2018 from 9.1 per cent in 2017 in the heavy and upper medium-duty truck segment as its competitors managed to post higher volumes.

DICV is the fourth largest player in the Indian M&HCV segment after Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland and VE Commercial Vehicles.

Amid near-term liquidity constraint related challenges, the CV industry — M&HCVs in particular — is expected to see some demand next fiscal.

“While liquidity pressures are expected to ease, we expect the demand sentiments to remain weak in the near term, which along with higher than usual inventory levels in the system will exert pressure on CV sales over the next few quarters,” Subrata Ray, Senior Group Vice-President, Icra, has said.