SIAM portrays a rosy picture for passenger vehicle sales in January-March

Passenger vehicle (PV) manufacturers may witness a lot of action in the last three months of FY18 with the impact of the cash ban and GST rollout waning and sentiment improving.
SIAM portrays a rosy picture for passenger vehicle sales in January-March

NEW DELHI: Passenger vehicle (PV) manufacturers may witness a lot of action in the last three months of FY18 with the impact of the cash ban and GST rollout waning and sentiment improving. The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) has revised upwardly its 2017-18 domestic sales growth forecast for PVs from 7-9 per cent to 9 per cent.

According to SIAM, PV sales have already surged past 30 lakh units in calendar year 2017, a milestone in itself. “We expect double-digit sales growth through the remainder of the financial year. The headwinds from GST rollout and demonetisation have faded away and sentiment has been improving,” said Sugato Sen, deputy director-general, SIAM.

For the whole of 2017, passenger vehicle sales stood at 32.29 lakh units against 29.66 lakh units in 2016, a growth of 8.85 per cent. While car sales grew 5.13 per cent, utility vehicles continued to see sharp growth, selling 8.70 lakh units at a growth rate of 20.09 per cent. Two-wheeler sales also hit a record, achieving nearly 1.92 crore units sold at a growth rate of 8.43 per cent.

In the month of December, however, a traditionally weak month for sales, passenger vehicles only grew by 5.22 per cent. Car sales, the mainstay of the segment, actually fell marginally by 0.18 per cent during the month compared to the same period last year. But, total auto sales recorded a substantial growth, rising 36.39 per cent year-on-year to hit 1.66 million units. A large portion of this cumulative sales growth came from the sharp uptick in demand for CVs.

Medium and heavy CV sales grew 73.07 per cent to reach 39,439 units and light CV sales grew 37.67 per cent to 42,923 units. Three-wheeler sales also grew rapidly, seeing a 90.54 per cent year-on-year rise during the month. Two-wheeler sales rose 41.45 per cent, with scooters rising by 52 per cent and motorcycles by 40.31 per cent. 

PV exports flat
PV exports grew by a marginal 0.1% in 2017. Sen said that the delayed GST refunds for exporters had affected growth. He also said H800 crore of refunds were pending for a single firm

Related Stories

No stories found.
The New Indian Express
www.newindianexpress.com