Auto Industry Caps 2006 with a Robust Sales Performance in December

Auto Industry Caps 2006 with a Robust Sales Performance in December

Bucking the past trends, the Indian auto industry continued its excellent run in December 2006 as well. Thanks to hefty year-end discounts and anticipated price increase from January 2007, passenger car sales at 123,684 units, including exports, zoomed 23% over 100,597 units of sale recorded in December 2005. The performance of commercial vehicles and 3-wheeler segments was even more impressive. While CVs clocking sales of 46,756 units grew by whopping 46.4%, 3-wheelers' sales aggregating 46,926 units in domestic & export markets rose steeply by 36.43% over December 2005. Two-wheelers had to be content with a modest growth of 5.30% with a sales tally of 592,247 units in domestic market. However, exports at 50,695 units, a significant part of it being contributed by Bajaj Auto that accounted for 24,622 units, stayed on course with healthy growth of 30% over December 2005.

Car market leader Maruti Udyog Ltd sold 54,640 vehicles in the domestic market in December 2006 clocking a robust growth of 26.3% over the sales figure of 43,251 vehicles in December 2005. The company's exports slid to 2,345 units in December 2006 from 2,828 units a year ago, recording a negative growth of 17.1%.

Maruti's volume in the domestic A2 segment comprising Alto, Wagon-R, Zen & Swift scaled up by 35.6% to 38,461 units and in C segment (Omni & Versa) by 40.6% during the month compared to sales in December 2005. The domestic sales of MUV segment (Gypsy & Grand Vitara) at 240 units nosedived as much as 55%, though.

Hyundai Motor India during December 2006 saw all time high sales in the overseas market with 12,288 units, posting a growth of 50% over the same month in 2005.The domestic market sales also witnessed a substantial growth of 42.3% over December 2005. HMIL's segment-wise cumulative sales in the month of December 2006 are: A2 Segment - 22,314 units; A3 Segment - 942 units; A4 Segment - 47 units; A5 segment - 34 units; and SUV Segment - 18 units.

HMIL registered a combined sale of 299,513 vehicles in CY2006, an increase of 18.5% over the year 2005. In the domestic market, the company's sales surged by 19.1% with 186,174 units, while its overseas sales grew by 17.4% with 113,339 units as compared to the year 2005. The year 2006 has been a significant year for Hyundai Motor India in that it crossed a number of milestones, major achievements being (i) Rolling out the fastest 300,000th export car; (ii) the launch of Verna; and (iii) rolling out the fastest 1,000,000th car of its production line.

Tata Motors reported a total sale of 48,792 vehicles (including exports) for the month of December 2006, a growth of 37% over 35,598 vehicles sold in December last year. Cumulative sales of Tata Motors at 407,452 units during the current financial year (April-December 2006) climbed up by handsome 33%.

TML's sales of commercial vehicles in December 2006 in the domestic market added up to 28,179 units, reflecting an increase of 50% over sales figure of 18,730 units in December 2005. The company's passenger vehicle sales tally of 16,515 units in the domestic market in December 2006 jumped 27% over December 2005. The Indica sold 10,588 units recording a growth of 52%. The Indigo, including Indigo Marina registered sales of 2,077 units, registering a decline of 24.6% from December 2005. The Sumo and Safari accounted for sales of 3,850 units, up 16% over the same month previous year. TML's cumulative sales of passenger vehicles at 157,010 units in the current fiscal was up 23% y-o-y.

The company's exports numbering 4,098 units in December 2006 as compared to 3,831 vehicles in December 2005, registered an increase of 7%.

Honda Siel Cars India sold 4,105 units in December 2006 as against 4,111 units in the corresponding month year. While HSCI's performance in December 2006 is not something to rave about, the company achieved a major milestone in December 2006 by producing more than 200,000 units since its inception. In the current financial year, the cumulative sales of 43,299 units compared with 29,834 units sold during April-December 2005 translates into a healthy growth of 45.13% for HSCI. Within six months of its launch in July 2006, Honda Civic has crossed the 10,000 units mark. Also, the new generation Honda CR-V, launched in late November 2006, has made more than 500 bookings.

Riding high on the launch of three new Chevrolet models during 2006, General Motors India continued on a growth track by clocking sales of 35,823 units in calendar year 2006 as against 30,837 units during 2005, thereby recording an annual growth of 16.2%. In December 2006, GM India sold 2,583 units as against 2,163 units in December 2005, clocking 19.4% growth. The December sales comprised 1,517 units of Chevrolet Tavera, 759 units of Chevrolet Aveo and 307 units of Chevrolet Optra.

Mahindra & Mahindra also came up with a buoyant performance in December.

M&M's UV sales at 11,274 units were up 34% over December 2005, while cumulative sales at 87,975 units in the current financial year recorded a growth of 9% over April-December 2005 sales figure of 81,040 units. Scorpio clocked a growth of 22%, notching up 3,152 units in December 2006. 3-wheeler sales of M&M vroomed by 64% to 2,559 units.

The year 2006 was not just a rocking year for mass-market cars. Even for luxury brands, sales were sizzling hot. DaimlerChrysler India sold an impressive 2,121 units in India from January till December 2006 and in the process doubled the growth rate in sales (close to 11% compared to 5.7% in 2005). During the year 2006, the company netted the highest-ever sales for the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, E-Class and C-Class cars for India.

Boosted by growth across all segments and regions, Bajaj motorcycles sold 187,063 units in December 2006, registering a 26% growth over December 2005 sales of 148,263 units. This was in sharp contrast to the flat/negative sales growth registered by other major motorcycle manufacturers, thereby leading to a significant gain in market share for Bajaj motorcycles to 35.5%. Expecting this trend to continue for some time, Bajaj is expanding motorcycle capacity to 300,000 units / month by April 2007.

Bajaj Auto's 3-wheeler segment also stayed on a high growth path. 3-wheeler sales soared by 50% to 27,749 units in December 2006 from 18,534 units a year ago.

Hero Honda Motors Ltd held on to its leadership position tenuously by registering 252,462 units of sale, including exports, in December 2006, which translates into a modest growth of 3% y-o-y. The exports at 7,321 units grew by 16.53%, while domestic sales aggregating 245,141 units by 2.64%.

Yamaha Motor India stayed on course, though at a snail's pace, to recovery. Yamaha motorcycles sold 18,136 units in domestic market and 5,307 overseas, registering a growth of 3.43% in December 2006 vis-à-vis December 2005.

TVS Motor Company's two wheeler sales in December 2006 recorded 103,188 units, declining by 3.9% from 107,412 units during the same month previous year.

TVS motorcycle sales in December 2006 clocked 58,756 units compared to 68,724 units in December 2005. However, for the 9-month period ended December 2006, the company's motorcycle sales aggregated 711,785 units - a healthy growth of 21% compared to the corresponding period in the previous year. TVS M exported 7,088 units of 2-wheelers in December 2006, growing at a 17% clip y-o-y.

Indian auto industry is on a roll and looks unstoppable at the moment. With economy growing at a decent pace and growth drivers firmly in place, the outlook for the year 2007 is promising.