Bajaj Auto's sales up 7% in October at 3,95.274 units

Bajaj Auto 's sales in October rose 7% year-on-year to 3,95,274 units, its highest ever for any October.

However, sequentially sales were down over 5% from the 4,17,686 units it sold in September. Bajaj Auto said it lost production of 25,000 motorcycles at its plant in Pantnagar due to the curfew imposed in early October, and that in turn hurt sales. Curfew had been imposed in the Pantnagar area of Uttarakhand state due to violence in Rudrapur town, affecting production of several companies in the region.

In October, Bajaj Auto sold 3,51,083 motorcycles, up 6% from a year ago, and 44,191 commercial vehicles [three wheelers], up 8% year-on-year, it said Wednesday. The company sold 10,000 units of the recently launched Boxer motorcycle in October.

Bajaj Auto expects November sales will be healthy and sees a run rate of 4 lakh vehicles per month to resume from next month.

Its exports surged 20% year-on-year to 1,31,948 units during October. Bajaj Auto has been seeing strong growth in its exports, especially to Africa. The company is already selling more three-wheelers overseas than in India.

Managing Director Rajiv Bajaj had said last month that total sales outside India would outstrip domestic numbers in future as market size overseas was four times that of India and there was immense potential to grow.

Over the April-October period, Bajaj Auto’s exports were up 33% year-on-year to 9,83,446 units. Its total sales were up 15% to 26,52,226 units over the same period.

While motorcycle sales rose 15% to 23,41,491 units in April-October, commercial vehicle sales were up 20% to 3,10,735 units, Bajaj Auto said.

Meanwhile, Bajaj Auto raised prices by Rs 500 per unit from October 1 and doesn't any more price hikes till the year-end.

Bajaj Auto shares were up 1.1% at Rs 1,733 on NSE in morning trade on Wednesday.