Automotive aftermarket to report negative growth for the first time

CII Conference to focus on new trends including consolidation of retail trade in the sector

The automotive aftermarket in India for the first time is expected to report a negative growth in the current fiscal by around 10-15 per cent from the current $3.7 billion.

R Dinesh, chairman, Auto Serve 2012 and Joint Managing Director,T V Sundram Iyengar & Sons Ltd said that one of the major factors for the negative growth is tightening of supply chain.

"Whenever the automotive industry reports negative growth, the aftermarket will show a positive sign, this is the first time in the history, the industry is expected to register a negative growth of around 10-15 per cent".

He added, however the future looks optimistic, led by CV industry growth, and the industry would touch around $9.4 billion by 2015.

Meanwhile, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is organising Auto Serve 2012, starting from November 16, the conference will focus how to improve profitability of owners, dealers, retail merchants and mechanics and it is to create more awareness about technology and on the recent trends globally, said Dinesh.

For instance, one of the main topics will be how spare parts retail trade is emerging.

After market in India is currently fragmented, but it is likely to move towards consolidation, through which wholeseller and distributor will consolidate semi-wholesellers or retailer will grow in big way. In both the cases semi-wholeseller might be reduced in a drastic way.

The conference will also focus on regulatory issues, inefficiency, who controls the networks and others.

The three-day conference- cum-exhibition will start on November16th in Chennai.