Auto sales touches record high in august

EVEN as Maruti Suzuki puts in place expansion plans hoping to regain the 50 per cent market share it lost in June, when its hold over the passenger car segment dipped to around 47 per cent, figures released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) today show that India's largest carmaker's market share in August dipped to 45.38 per cent.

Total sales of passenger vehicles for the company stood at 92,674 for August against a total industry sales of 2,04,227 units. These include passenger cars, utility vehicles and multi purpose vehicles.

While there have been a slew of new launches across segments, reducing Maruti Suzuki's share of the market, analysts point out that this is a momentary phenomenon.
"There are various reasons for a com pany's market share going down, but it it not a worrying phenomenon. It may be because of new launches or even slowing in capacity production. The main thing is that companies have to think differently to maintain market leadership," says PricewaterhouseCoopers auto practice leader Abdul Majeed.

Overall growth of the passenger car segment, however, continues to be strong and the SIAM forecast of 12-13 per cent growth for the fiscalseems moreachievable. SIAM data shows that in August, car sales rose 33 percentto1,60,794unitsasagainst1,20,681 .

unitsinthesamemonthlastyear.TotalautomobilesalesinAugustsetanewrecordwith 12,63,293 units being sold, up 25.4 per cent compared with the 10,08,712 units sold in thesamemonthin2009.Month-on-month, sales were up nearly 3 per cent, from 12,37,461 units sold in July this year.


"The fundamentals of the economy con tinuetobestrongandconsumerconfidence ishigh.Thesearedrivingthegrowthofsales of vehicles, mainly in the personal usage segments," SIAM director general Vishnu Mathur said. He said with sales continuing to be robust, SIAM expects the industry to exceed its predictions made earlier this year.

SIAM had forecast that passenger vehicles sales to grow around 13 per cent this fiscal, which is now witnessing a growth of around 30 per cent. "Similarly, utility vehicles are growing at around 17 per cent as against a forecast of 14 per cent," he said, adding the commercial vehicles segment is also growing at 24 per cent as against a forecast of 19-20 per cent for 2010-11.

In August, Maruti Suzuki posted domestic passenger car sales of 78,351 units, up 24.31 per cent from the same month last year,SIAMsaid.HyundaiMotorIndiahad sales of 28,601 units, up 17.21 per cent from August last year. Tata Motors had sales of 22,312units,up51.21percentfromtheyear ago period. In the motorcycles segment, market leader Hero Honda witnessed a marginal decline at 3,86,574 units from 3,89,814 units in the same month last year.

Rival Bajaj Auto on the other hand, gained handsomely at 2,09,567 units, up 72.27 per cent from the same month last year. TVS Motor had a sales of 49,630 units, up 22.51 per cent from the same month last year.

According to the SIAM data, scooters segment grew by 43.63 per cent at 1,70,482 units during August. The growth was led by Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India with sales of 74,405 units, up 27.72 per cent from the year-ago period.

"Overall growth levels will maintain as the penetration level in India continues to be low. The future will be dominated by the small car," said Majeed.