Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Wednesday, Oct 09, 2002
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Wednesday, Oct 09, 2002 |
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Corporate
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Outlook Bajaj Auto sales likely to touch 1.5 m this fisc — CKD units in Brazil, Indonesia on cards Sudha Menon
PUNE, Oct. 8 TWO and three-wheeler manufacturer Bajaj Auto Ltd (BAL) is likely to touch the 1.5 million mark in sales in the current fiscal, its highest-ever till date, Mr Rahul Bajaj, Chairman and Managing Director, told Business Line on Tuesday. The company's highest ever sales till now were in 1998-99 when it sold 1.42 million vehicles, he pointed out. BAL's total installed production capacity in its three plants at Pune, Chakan and Aurangabad is 2.2 million vehicles annually. "We are confident of getting to the 1.5 million vehicle sales by the end of the current fiscal, but whether we register a huge growth over last year's figures or just a marginal growth depends on how the market responds in the next six months,'' Mr Bajaj said. The company ended fiscal 2001-02 with total sales of 1.36 million vehicles. The company was also close to setting up CKD assembly plants in Indonesia and Brazil to tap the demand in these regions, Mr Bajaj said, adding that it was currently scouting for locations in South-East Asia and Latin America for similar ventures. BAL's Vice-President, Corporate Finance, Mr Sanjeev Bajaj, said the company had appointed a local distributor who had commenced assembling the company's two wheelers this month and would start assembling three wheelers in the next couple of months. "Indonesia is the third largest two-wheeler market in the world with an estimated size this year of two million units and we are open to investing there at a later stage when we expect to pick up volumes. Over the next couple of years, we plan to arrive at the right mix of local manufacturing and import and we will take a call on investing only after that,'' Mr Sanjeev Bajaj said, adding the company had targeted a 10 per cent share of the market there in the next 3-4 years. Meanwhile, the company's premium bike, Pulsar was all set to make its debut in Brazil where BAL had just appointed a distributor and the first lot of the bikes would soon be dispatched, Mr Bajaj said. "We are still in the process of kicking off operations in Brazil,'' he said Meanwhile, the company was continuously adjusting its production schedule keeping in mind the demand in the market and the fluctuating demand in various segments, but the motorcycle business was proving to be the winner, Mr Bajaj said. The scooter sales for instance have plummeted from the level of 70,000 units a month in boom time to the level of 25,000 units currently, he pointed out. The company hoped to sell 9,00,000 motorcycles this fiscal of which it has already sold 4,13,000 units till end-September. The company has, however, been able to stem the downslide in the market by specific measures like cost-reduction and changes in the features of its two and four-stroke M-80s in the Tamil Nadu market which is where the maximum sales in this category takes place. "We have gone up from the level of 1,300 vehicles per month to touch the 3,000 unit mark in September in Tamil Nadu,'' he said.
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