The Hindu Business Line : Car sales up 15.2 pc in March

DOMESTIC passenger car sales rose by 15.2 per cent in March 2003 as consumers postponed purchases hoping to benefit from an excise deduction on automobiles in the 2003-04 Budget.

Sales of Maruti Udyog, Tata Engineering, and Hyundai surged, as the total passenger car sales increased to 67,817 units in March 2003 from 58,864 units in the same month last year, data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers showed.

Sales of the country's largest automobile manufacturer, Maruti Udyog, increased by 26.2 per cent to 35,907 units in March, riding primarily on the increased sales of its bread-and-butter model, the Maruti 800. Maruti 800 sales rose to 20,687 units in March compared to 14,340 units last year.

Meanwhile, the sales of Korean auto major Hyundai Motor surged by 21.1 per cent to 11,526 units in March compared to 9,513 unit. Sales of Tata Engineering witnessed a 23.5 per cent rise to 10,831 units in March (8,770 units).

Motorcyles slip: On the flip side motorcycle sales were unable to maintain the momentum in March, with sales for the segment declining by 3.3 per cent to 2,80,927 units from 2,90,578 units in the same month last year. As a result, total two-wheeler sales declined by about 7.4 per cent to 3,60,494 units in March (3,89,217 units).

"This has happened for the first time and, therefore, a cause of concern for the two-wheeler manufacturers. The single biggest factor for poor performance in March has been dwindling purchasing power in the hands of rural people due to drought in the year 2002-03", a statement released by SIAM said.

While, two-wheeler majors Bajaj Auto and TVS saw a marginal increase in motorcycle sales, Hero Honda saw a 15.3 per cent decline in sales to 1,13,713 units in March 2003 compared to 134,274 units.

Sales in the scooter/scooterettee segment too saw a decline, caused primarily by an almost 50 per cent decrease in the sales of Bajaj Auto to 17,068 units in March. However, riding on the launches of sleek, new generation scooters, sales of both Honda Motorcycle & Scooters India and Kinetic Engineering almost doubled in the period.

Sales of commercial vehicles grew by almost 10 per cent in March to 22,082 units, primarily due to the cyclical replacement by fleet operators, and progress of the ongoing National Highway Development Programme (NHDP).

However, SIAM has stated that the performance of the commercial vehicles in March is a cause for concern, especially in view of only a 3.04 per cent sales growth recorded in the medium & heavy commercial vehicles (M&HCV) segment.

"This could be attributed to the uncertainties arising out of switching over to VAT and issues related to the imposition of additional cess on diesel price and subsequent decision of the transporters to go on indefinite strike", the association said.

Sales of light truck and bus increased by 22.5 per cent to 8,655 units during the month.

In the utility vehicle segment, sales jumped by about 34 per cent in March to 15,317 units, driven principally by rising sales of the two major players — Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) and Toyota Kirloskar. Both the companies witnessed high double-digit growth during the period.

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