High interest rates and the recent price increase might have impacted the sale of passenger cars in July but demand for commercial vehicles seems to be on a growth trajectory with leading players witnessing a healthy growth last month.
Tata Motors, the largest commercial vehicle manufacturer in the country, posted a growth of 8% in July at 22,381 units as against 20,705 units during the same month last year. While, sales of light commercial vehicles went up by 19% to 12,284 units as compared to 11,167 units, medium and heavy commercial vehicles witnessed a dip of 3% at 10,097 units vis-?-vis 10,409 units in July 2007.
“Fundamentals of the economy like infrastructure have been growing and this has led to the growth in demand for commercial vehicles. All this is despite the marginal impact of high interest rates and unavailability of finance,” says K Sridharan, chief financial office, Ashok Leyland. Its domestic sales went up 9.3% to 5,502 units as against 5,034 units in the same month last year. While sales of LCVs increased 300% at 88 units vis-?-vis 22 units in July last year, M&HCVs recorded a growth of 8.02% at 5,414 units as compared to 5,012 units in July last year. Total sales of Eicher Motors grew marginally 1% at 1,850 units as compared to 1,831 units in July last year
“Organised retail is booming in the country like never before and the growth is expected to be there even in the short-term, which means continuous growth in the segment,” says Abdul Majeed, auto analyst and partner, Price Waterhouse.