Auto Industry Rides into Record Sales in September

The industry is on a high with all its segments moving ahead in full throttle. The two-wheeler segment that witnessed a tad slowdown in August 2006 has bounced back with vengeance in September 2006, recording a growth of 19.15% y-o-y. Riding on surge in sales during Navatras, the industry, overall, grew at a blistering pace of 20.03% in September 2006 vis-a-vis September 2005.

Maruti Udyog Ltd sped to a 22% increase in domestic sales at 56,606 units during September 2006 as compared to 46,393 units a year back. In all, Maruti Udyog Limited sold 59,420 vehicles in September 2006. Overseas sales during the month declined by 2.5% i.e. from 2,885 units in September 2005 to 2,814 units.

The sale of Maruti 800 (A1 segment) at 7,680 units increased by 3.5 per cent in September from 7,423 units in the same month last year. Maruti's domestic sales volume in A2 segment (Alto, Wagon-R, Zen, Swift) shot up by 28.9%, while A3 segment comprising Baleno, Esteem and C segment (Omni, Versa) grew by 7.6% & 21 % respectively in September 2006 y-o-y. The sales of MUV segment, however, witnessed a 16% dip.

Hyundai Motor India (HMI) achieved a growth of 14.1% in domestic market in the month of September 2006, over the same month in 2005, selling 16,415 vehicles during the month.

HMI's total sales during the month were 26,492 units - an overall growth of 11.5% over September 2005. Sales in the overseas market at 10,077 units grew by 7.5%. Hyundai Verna launched in the last week of September 2006 received a good initial response, selling 2,043 units in the first five days after the launch.

Segment-wise sales of HMI in the month of September 2006 are: A2 segment - 22,409 units, A3 segment - 3,887 units, A4 segment - 147 units, A5 segment - 22 units, SUV segment - 27 units.

Honda Siel Cars India (HSCI) witnessed a hefty growth of 51.60% riding on the success of its latest offering, the Honda Civic and clocked 5,993 units of sales in September 2006 as against 3,953 units in September last year. Honda City sold 3,776 units; Civic 1,999 units; Accord 206 units; and CRV 12units.

Ford India was also a big gainer this September, with its sales adding up to 7,117 units and growing by a whopping 160% over 2,731 units a year earlier. The company also saw its exports at 2, 857 units rising steeply by 171 %.

 
Mahindra & Mahindra notched up a growth of 15% as compared to September 2005, selling 15,935 units (including 1,055 units of exports) in September 2006. Domestic sales at 14,880 units were up 12% y-o-y.

Tata Motors witnessed a total sale of 49,157 vehicles (including exports) in September 2006, which is 23.8% more than 39,707 vehicles sold in September last year.

During the month, Tata Motors' Passenger Vehicle Business reported a total sale of 18,609 vehicles in the domestic market, growing by 15.7% y-o-y. The Indica sold 10,694 units, recording a growth of 10.6%. The Indigo family, based on the encouraging response to its face lifted version, aggregated 3,568 units, reflecting an increase of 6.4% in its sales. Sumo and Safari together mustered sales of 4,347 units, zooming 42.3% over September 2005. Safari registered its highest ever sales of 1,543 units in the month.

The company's domestic sales of commercial vehicles in September 2006 added up to 26,627 units, witnessing a jump of 39.5% over 19,087 vehicles sold in September 2005. M&HCV sales stood at 15,193 units, a growth of 34.1 %, while LCV sales at 11,434 units, propelled the growth curve up by 47.4% over September 2005.

Car sales were adversely affected during the month due to a fire led stoppage of production in the last week. The impact of fire is also expected to be felt in the company's October sales.

Ashok Leyland's total vehicle sales in September 2006 at 8,155 units, climbed up by 39%, compared to 5,875 units in September 2005.

Eicher Motor also shored up its position, growing by 14%. The company recorded a sale of 2,341 units in September 2006 vis-a-vis 2,046 units in September 2005.

Hero Honda Motors Ltd hung onto its leadership position in the Indian two-wheeler industry by clocking 301,577 units of sales in September 2006. Hero Honda's sales in September 2006 were 13.34% higher than its sales of 266,071 motorcycles during September 2005. The company also launched festive gift offer "Mobike Pe Mobile" during the month, which offers a complete mobile package including a free Motorola handset, free talk time of Rs. 2,000/- and free sms of Rs. 1,000/- with purchase of every Hero Honda bike. Lucky customers can also win complimentary tickets to the ICC Champions Trophy.

Reflecting overwhelming acceptance of its new products and effectiveness of its marketing & sales initiatives, Bajaj Auto's motorcycles sales raced to 271,377 units in September 2006, growing by healthy 50% over 180,926 units in September 2005. Bajaj motorcycle market share scaled to a new high of 37.9%.

Total 2 and 3 wheeler sales in September 2006 (including exports) were at a record 300,141 units, climbing up 38% over 218,012 units in September 2005, and included 121,521 units of high-end motorcycles Discover, Pulsar and Avenger that constituted 45% of its motorcycle sales. Bajaj's 3-wheeler sales in September 2006 at 27,870 units rose by 21 % over 23,118 units a year ago. Exports also leapfrogged to 37,088 units registering a steep increase of 58% over 23,463 units in September 2005.

Riding on the strong demand for its motorcycles, TVS Motor Company registered its highest ever sales in a single month. Motorcycles for the first time crossed the 1-lakh mark by recording 106,972 units of sale in the month of September 2006 and growing by 42% over 75,31 0 units in September 2005. The overall two-wheelers sales of the company at record 162,200 units (121,108 units) too witnessed a hefty increase of 34%.

The strong motorcycle growth of TVS can be attributed to the growing popularity and acceptance TVS StaR City in economy segment and TVS Apache in premium segment. The company recently unveiled TVS StaR City Electric Start (ES), which is the first 100cc motorcycle with electric start.

TVS Scooty sales stood at 24,890 units in September 2006 vis-a-vis 22,697 units in the same month last year, showing a growth of 10%.

On the export front too, TVS saw its numbers rising steeply by 38% to 10,339 units in September 2006.

Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India was in news again for its labour trouble, that found reflection in its sales during September 2006, which declined by 24%. As against sale of 60,985 units in September 2005, HMSI could manage 49,153 units during the month.

Yamaha Motor India, another two-wheeler major, sold 21,984 units in September 2006 in domestic market as against the sales figure of 21,254 units recorded a year ago. The company's exports performance continued to be impressive clocking exports of 6,581 units as against 4,959 units in the same month last year.

If sales trends in the first half of the current fiscal are any indicator, the auto industry is headed for a healthy growth seen against the backdrop of rosy picture of Indian economy. With good roads coming up and IT industry and manufacturing sector leading the charge towards another successive year of 8% GDP growth, the optimism is not unfounded.