Sales figures spur auto industry revival dreams

Our Corporate Bureau

Mumbai, Aug 21: IS the automobile industry finally gearing up for an overdrive? If the latest industry figures are any indication to go by, it seems that the automobile industry may be headed for better times, albeit with cautious optimism.

A snapshot comparative study of the cumulative figures for April-July this fiscal, as compared to 1999-2000, reveal that passenger cars, multi-utility vehicles and two-wheelers have shown an increase in sales as compared to the first four months of the last fiscal. Even domestic commercial vehicles, which have shown a decline for the period under review, saw July month-on-month (m-o-m) sales increase by a modest 3.4 per cent at 9,545 units against 9,233 units.

Particularly impressive has been the increase in passenger car sales. Industry observers attribute this primarily to Maruti Udyog Ltd which notched up sales of 30,168 units of the industry total of 48,481 units in July. Analysts point out that the Maruti Zen, Alto LX and the Wagon R has been performing well. Cumulative passenger car sales also increased from 191,094 units to 196,476 units during the four month period (April- July).

Ford India also saw a whopping increase in sales to 13,467 units during the period as against 6,414 units during April-July 2000.

In the multi-utility vehicle segment, sales figures show a 1.21 per cent at 37,891 units for the four month period. This has been primarily due to Toyota Kirloskar’s Qualis which went up to 9,510 units from 7,678 units in the last fiscal. The two-wheeler segment also saw a 4.58 per cent increase with 12,86,130 units against 12,29,775 in the period last fiscal. According to an analyst with a brokerage firm, the two-wheeler industry is expected to grow at around 6-7 per cent in the current fiscal.

While the growth rate for motorcycles is expected to be around 18-20 per cent, scooters are also expected to show a positive growth rate of 3-4 per cent this fiscal.

While motorcycle sales continued to zoom with sales figures of 8,19,620 units against 6,58,719 units, scooter sales have also picked up. Scooter sales have infact marginally increased to 73,082 units against 73,045 units m-o-m in July. The modest improvement for scooters has been mainly on account of the success of auto-geared scooters and the stripped-down versions. Infact, Bajaj Auto, which has been the key player in the case of stripped-down versions, saw its July m-o-m sales increase to 29,213 units as opposed to 25994 units in April-July 1999-00.