Car sales may miss growth forecast, will revise after Sept: SIAM

In July, SIAM had lowered car sales growth forecast to 9-11% for this fiscal from an earlier projection of 10-12%

With domestic car sales posting the biggest drop in 10 months in August by 18.56%, industry body SIAM today said its forecast of registering a growth of 9-11% in this fiscal is unlikely to be met.

While the August car sales stood at 1,18,142 units in August 2012 compared to 1,45,066 units in the same month in 2011, for the April-August period this fiscal it stood at 7,52,440 units as against 7,45,991 units in the same period last year, up 0.86%.

"If the declining trend continues, if the September sales are also in the negative, then we won't meet the growth target," Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) Senior Director Sugato Sen told reporters here.

In July, SIAM had lowered car sales growth forecast to 9-11% for this fiscal due to weak macro-economic conditions, from an earlier projection of 10-12%.

For the overall passenger vehicles segment, the industry body had revised upward the growth forecast at 11-13% for the fiscal as against 10-12% announced in April this year.

Sen said this is also unlikely to be met.

"That's something we have to see. The growth of cumulative passenger vehicle sales in the April-August period this fiscal is at 7.42%," Sen said.

According to the latest SIAM data, passenger vehicle sales in India stood at 10,49,961 units in the April-August period this fiscal as against 9,77,393 units in the year-ago period.

Considering the current trend, this festive season could be one of the worst, Sen said.

He, however, said SIAM would revise the growth projection only after seeing the September sales.

He said apart from the overall weak market sentiments and the conditions of the economy, vehicles sales have also been impacted due to government putting on hold purchase of new vehicles for all its departments since June.

As per a notification issued on May 31, the government had asked the departments not to buy new vehicles till further notice, even for replacing condemned vehicles.

Sen was, however, optimistic that the government could work out a way to support the automobile industry to boost the overall sales.

"NMCC (National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council) has got in touch with us and we had a discussion on how to support the automobile industry. They had also called a meeting of Chief Secretaries of states," he said.

The NMCC is also in consultation with different industry chambers like CII and FICCI, he added.