Bajaj Auto, the number one exporter of motorcycles and three wheelers in the country, has hiked prices of its products in Nigeria following the devaluation of the Nigerian currency Naira to the US $. Nigeria is the biggest market for Bajaj’s exports. The company’s exports to Nigeria last year was around 5 lakh units with a 44% market share.
As far as Bajaj Auto is concerned the situation is under control as of now and the company expects to maintain the growth seen so far in Nigeria for the rest of this fiscal despite this, Rajiv Bajaj, MD of Bajaj Auto told a television channel. In a situation like this a stronger player tends to weather it better so he was confident that Bajaj could hold better than some other players so he expected the robust growth in volumes to continue. Bajaj products in Nigeria would now be priced based on a level of 175 Naira/$ instead of 160 Naira/$ earlier, he said.
On the pricing front, the company has passed around a third of the price increase to customers and the remaining will be shared between the company and the distributors. Bajaj has been exporting around 50,000 motorcycles and 5,000 three-wheelers to Nigeria in the last few months, Bajaj said.
Last year the company exported 1.58 million units with export turnover of Rs 8.199 crore. Motorcycle exports were at 1.32 million units with at 66.7% share of the exports. In commercial vehicles exports were at 2.60 lakh units with a 73.8% share of exports. Exports accounted for 41.6% of Bajaj Auto’s net sales. Africa accounted for 46% of the units exported. Bajaj’s Boxer enjoys leadership position in Nigeria. Around 35% of the company’s exports are to Nigeria, which is the biggest export market for Bajaj Auto. Around 12% of the company’s turnover is from Nigeria.
The Bajaj Auto shares was down 0.90% on the BSE to close at R 2,617 on Wednesday.
