The excise duty cut announced in the Interim Budget last month has only had a little impact on the demand for cars, with the auto sector continuing to face the burden of high fuel prices, and tighter lending norms. The companies, however, expect the sales to pick up in the coming months with increased enquiries due to price reduction.
Maruti Suzuki reported a flat sales in February, while Tata Motors and Hyundai Motors posted lower sales. Export-wise, Tata Motors reported higher sales.
Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, while presenting the 2013-14 Interim Budget last month, had reduced the Excise duty on cars, Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) and two-wheelers till June 2014, to give relief to the automobile industry which is registering unprecedented negative growth. However, the cut in excise duty did not help much in pushing up sales volume for the car makers, for the reason that the excise cut was much lower than the prevailing discount rates in the market.
Maruti Suzuki
Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. reported February total sales, including exports, at 109,104 vehicles, flat with last year’s 109,567 units.
In the domestic market, the company reported sales of 99,758 units, higher by two percent than 97,955 units in the corresponding month of last year, while exports stood at 9,346 units, down by 20 percent from 11,612 in February 2013.
Under the passenger vehicles category, “Mini” segment comprising M800, Alto, A-Star, WagonR had sales of 37,342 units during the month, down by ten percent from 41,311 units a year-ago, while “Compact” segment comprising Swift, Estilo, Ritz grew by 19 percent to 28,672 vehicles from 24,021 vehicles last year.
Sales of DZire covered under “Super Compact” segment were flat at 18,353 units, compared with 18,316 units in February last year, while sales of SX4 in Mid-size segment were 228 units, up by six percent from 215 units last February. The company reported sales of 2 units of Kizashi covered under Executive segment in February last year.
Cumulative sales, including exports, for the first eleven months of this fiscal, stood at 1,041,691 units, down by one percent from 1,051,497 units in the corresponding period a year ago.
Tata Motors
Tata Motors Ltd., reported February total sales, including exports, of 39,951 units, down by 36 percent from 61,998 units sold in last February.
Cumulative sales (including exports) for the company for the fiscal are 515,511 nos., a decline of 30 percent over 737,408 nos. sold last year.
Domestic sales of commercial vehicles were 23,990 units, a decline of 49 percent, compared with 47,389 units sold in February last year.
Sales of passenger vehicles in the domestic market were 11,325 units versus 10,613 vehicles sold last year, reflecting a seven percent growth.
Export sales last month totaled 4,636 vehicles, higher by 16 percent than 3,996 units in February 2013.
Hyundai Motors
Hyundai Motor India Ltd., the country’s second largest car-manufacturer and the largest passenger car-exporter, reported a 15 percent decline in its total sales during February 2013.
In February, its total sales were 46,505 units, compared with 54,665 units in the same month of the preceding year, reflecting a 15 percent drop.
Domestic sales stood at 34,005 units, flat with last year’s 34,002 units, while exports fell by 40 percent to 12,500 units from 20,663 in the year-ago period.
Commenting on the sales results, Hyundai Motor India Vice- President (Sales & Marketing) Rakesh Srivastava said, “Post the reduction in excise duty, enquiry inflow has increased with February sales of 34,005 units, a growth of two percent over earlier month and it is expected that this would lead towards creation of a positive momentum.”
At BSE Sectoral indices, the auto sector was up 1.23 percent at 12.24 hrs (IST) on Monday.
Source: rttnews.com
