NEW DELHI: The second Covid-19 wave has derailed recovery of multiple sectors, including automobiles, aviation and construction, that were cruising towards normalcy. The battered auto industry witnessed significant improvement during October-February of the previous financial year (FY21), but is now going through a slump phase.
Likewise, sentiments in the housing sector are slowly moving towards the negative zone. As for the aviation sector, domestic air traffic has already fallen by more than half in recent days and industry executives expect rising Covid-19 cases and increasing lockdown restriction from various states will remain an overhang on air traffic, derailing its recovery.
“Walk-ins at showrooms are down by over 50 per cent and fresh bookings have dried up completely,” Vinkesh Gulati, president of auto dealer body FADA told this publication. “The passenger vehicle (PV) segment is placed better as we have bookings for 2-3 months, but the two-wheeler segment is in a bad shape as inventory level here is very high at about 60-70 days but sales have rock-bottomed,” he added.
According to Gulati, PV retail sales will fall month-on-month in April and overall auto sales in Q1FY22 would be lower by 30 per cent when compared with sales during Q1FY2020, he said. The sector may now recover only in the third quarter of this fiscal.
Coming to housing sector, industry executives believe that the April-June quarter will get impacted due to the rampant spread of the virus. “The second wave is not expected to end the good run that we saw in the recent months but will be a blip that would last for 2-3 months,” said Anuj Puri, Chairman - ANAROCK Property Consultants.
Sales may fall by 10-15 per cent in Mumbai region but will recover in the subsequent quarters as cases recede. Similarly, the resurgence in Covid-19 cases has cast a dark shadow on the aviation sector with the top three airlines expected to log net losses of Rs 10,000 crore this year, say analysts. “The industry is seeing a drop of 30 per cent in booking, when compared to March numbers,” said Nishant Pitti, co-founder of EaseMyTrip.