BENGALURU: Hope for the struggling commercial vehicle (CV) category could come next fiscal as a ratings agency has forecasted growth of around 13-17 per cent in 2015-16.
According to credit ratings agency, India Ratings new report, medium and heavy CV (M&HCV) will grow at around 13-17 per cent while Light CV will grow at a marginal 3 per cent. Commercial vehicle sales, considered an indicator of the health of the economy has battled uncertainty for over two years now. But the sector has shown improvement in demand in the last few months even though overall growth remains muted.
Overall CV registered a de-growth of -5.65 per cent when compared to the same period last year. The M&HCV segment grew 10.33 per cent during the same period while LCV grew -12.77 per cent, according to automobile trade body SIAM (Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers).
“While moderate volume increase in H1 FY’16 is likely to be due to replacement demand, the volume increase during H2 FY’16 will be driven by the expansion by fleet operators, resulting in significant growth for the full year. Due to the lower cyclicality in light commercial vehicle segment, it is expected to lag behind MHCVs in terms of recovery,” the report said.
With the new government at the Centre, businesses have been upbeat about restarting of stalled infrastructure projects giving a boost to CV sales.