While the coronavirus outbreak is continuing to hurt economic activities, truck sale figures are on a free fall, and industry analysts say they do not see an immediate recovery in the sector. The Commercial Vehicle (CV) sales have been going down for more than one-and-a-half years. The cumulative sales of top commercial vehicle manufacturers dropped by nearly 35 per cent in February 2020, year-on-year.
Ashok Leyland reported that its truck sales dropped by 58 per cent to 4,706 units in February 2020, from 11,117 units in the same month last year. Mahindra & Mahindra’s commercial vehicle sales dropped 25 per cent in last month to 15,856 vehicles, from 21,154 vehicles in February 2019. Even Tata Motors saw its commercial vehicle segment go down by a double digit percentage figure.
Sales of Volvo Trucks declined by 8 per cent to 147 units in February 2020, compared to 160 units in the same month last year.VE Commercial Vehicles too posted 27.4 per cent decline in domestic sales of its Eicher trucks in February 2020.Sales of truck companies are under pressure due to a number of factors, the prominent reasons being the axle load norms, liquidity crunch, Goods and Services Tax (GST), BS-IV inventory correction and economic slowdown.
Industry representatives have said that the situation is unlikely to improve soon as India’s economic activity is yet to pick up due to reduced business activity and consumer spending. “I don’t see a revival happening till the second half of next financial year. It will take some time for demand to revive, and after that it should remain reasonably strong. However, it would be very difficult to predict a number currently,” said Anuj Kathuria, chief operating officer, Ashok Leyland.
No immediate recovery visible in the horizon
Sales of truck companies are under pressure due to a number of factors, the prominent reasons being the axle load norms, liquidity crunch, Goods and Services Tax (GST), BS-IV inventory correction and economic slowdown. Analysts say speedy recovery is unlikely due to reduced business activity and consumer spending in the country
58 per cent decline in commercial vehicle sales of Ashok Leyland
25 per cent drop in Mahindra & Mahindra’s truck sales
27.4 per cent plunge in sales of PE Commercial Vehicles