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Telco, Daewoo Motors bear brunt of auto-sector slowdown
NEW DELHI, January 4: Telco and Daewoo Motors India Ltd (DMIL) were the worst hit by the recession in the luxury segment during 1997, with their sales dropping a respective 52 and 50 per cent, compared with an 18 per cent decline posted by the segment.The segment has been on the decline ever since the year began. In fact, 1997 would go down in history as the year when the entire industry and the segment, in particular, went on to the reverse gear. According to industry figures, 54,541 cars were sold in the segment in 1997, compared with 67,115 cars in 1996. In December, 2,811 cars were sold in the segment, compared with 4,374 in December 1996, down 35 per cent. General Motors India Ltd's Opel Astra sales hit rock bottom in the final month, touching a sales of 226 cars as against 1,360 in the same month the previous year, recording an 83 per cent drop in sales. Telco was the major loser during the entire year with the sales of its Sierra and Estate models eroding by the month. The company managed
to sell as many as 2,282 vehicles in the year as against 4,746 units, down 52 per cent. However, the sales figure has jumped up more than two folds in December 1997, touching 200 vehicles as against 84 in December 1996. Pal-Peugeot, however, turned out to be the surprise winner of the year, being the only car maker to zoom ahead of competition -- recording a positive growth during the 12-month period. As many as 2,263 of the company's 309 model were sold in 1997 from 1,689 in the year 1996. The market-leader Maruti Udyog (MUL) sold 19,404 of its Esteem car in 1997, compared with 25,416 in the previous year, down 23.6 per cent. Daewoo Motors recorded a 50 per cent drop in sales of its Cielo model during the year from 20,567 in 1996 to 10,283 in 1997. In December 1997, the sales figure declined 54 per cent to touch 325 as against 710 in the same month the previous year. Hindustan Motors, with its Contessa model, witnessed a 26.2 per cent decline in sales from 2,023 in 1996 to 1,602 in 1997. During the
last month of the year, retails of the car touched 61 from 151 last year, down 59.6 per cent. The other two players in the segment General Motors and Mahindra Ford sold as many as 10,248 Astra cars and 8,107 Escort cars during the entire year. Opel Astra sales during the previous year (seven months) stood at 3,942, while retails of Escort was at 1,054 last year (three months).
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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