The company during the month has sold 2,688 vehicles including 2,642 units in the domestic market. In October '98, ALL had sold only 1,753 units.In the light commercial vehicles segment, the company sold 18 vehicles in October compared to 31 last year.

For the period April-October '99, ALL has sold 18,138 vehicles compared to 13,839 vehicles in the corresponding period of the previous year, representing a jump of 31.1 per cent.

Increased freight availability is attributed as one of the major reasons for the higher offtake of vehicles. ALL executive director Amol J Sandil, opined that the freight movement, especially in north India, showed a significant jump for transporting agriculture produce.

This, coupled with higher cement dispatches and FMCG movement across the country, absorbed idle capacity that existed, forcing the fleet operators to go for new trucks, he added.

The usual post-depreciation hangover in October did not occur this year on account of the fact that Diwali festival fell during the first week of November.

Sandil felt that the sales would have been much better had it not been for the lorry strike consequent to the diesel price hike and uncertainty that prevailed on whether the fleet owners would be in a position to pass on the increased input cost to the consumers.

ALL's share in passenger segment continued to be on the lower side compared to the previous year. ALL, Sandil said, had good amount of orders from STUs but was unable to deliver the same as state transport undertakings (STUs) faced resource crunch.

This situation would soon improve as many STUs have increased their fares, thereby shoring up their cash flows considerably.

In the passenger bus segment, Ashok Leyland sold 911 buses during the month compared to 584 a year ago with total production moving up from 761 vehicles to 1,052 vehicles in this period.

He expects an overall volume growth of about 20 per cent over the previous year. ALL in 1998-99 had sold 29,741 vehicles.

On the export front, the company sold 46 vehicles in the month as against 79 vehicles a year ago, with the bulk of orders again coming in the medium-duty goods vehicles segment.

Growth in HCV sales props up margins
The stupendous growth from Ashok Leyland is a continuation of the growth the company has seen in the first half of the current year.

In the first half ALL has shown a 60 per cent growth in production and a 30 per cent growth in sales, which has continued. To some extent the lower base of last year has made the current period look much better. However, this growth rate has not tipped over into LCVs where volumes in the sector as a whole has grown by just 4 per cent. ALL's volumes in LCVs have dipped in the last six months.

However, ALL's volumes in LCVs being low, it is the good growth in HCVs which really matters for ALL.

--Aaron Chaze