Motown vrooms again as leaders see sales pick up speed

The bigger companies in the segment are cautiously optimistic about the festive season

Sales of Maruti Suzuki India and Hero MotoCorp, the country's largest automobile makers in the passenger car and two-wheeler segments, respectively, were better than expected in September, raising hopes of a pick-up in the festive season.

However, with the combined sales of domestic passenger vehicles falling 2.6 per cent to 192,852 units because of a poor show by Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M), automakers are only cautiously optimistic of better sales in the festive period. The overall offtake of two-wheelers, on the other hand, increased by 23 per cent to 1.1 million units.

For Maruti Suzuki, exports did the trick. While its domestic sales were up 1.8 per cent to 90,399 units last month, exports surged a 180 per cent to 14,565 units. The strong rebound in shipments abroad raised the total sales for the company, up 11.7 per cent to 104,964 units. Even conceding that last September's exports were hit by labour unrest, the sales are still 50 per cent more than the company's average exports of around 10,000 vehicles a month. (2-WHEELERS IN HIGH GEAR)

Sales for the company grew 14.5 per cent in the passenger car segment (cars and sedans) in the domestic market but tepid demand in the utility vehicle segment (Gypsy & Ertiga), earlier a growth driver, dragged down overall domestic growth to 1.8 per cent. The market responded positively to the development, with Maruti Suzuki shares closing at Rs 1,380, up 1.62 per cent, on the BSE exchange.

Sales of two-wheelers were up for the second month, hinting at improvement in rural consumer sentiment. While the wholesale numbers for Hero MotoCorp increased 15.8 per cent to 468,670 units in September, rival Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India saw a record offtake of 328,965 units, up 35 per cent. Anil Dua, senior vice-president (marketing & sales), Hero MotoCorp, said, "Our 16 per cent growth in despatch sales in September has come on the back of a consistent seven per cent growth in our retails this year. This has been helped by the strong performance of our models and our customer-friendly corporate initiatives such as the five-year warranty across our range and Hero Mileage, the promise of extra km a litre. With a slew of new offerings we have planned, we enter the festive season with optimism and confidence."

M&M also hopes for higher offtake during festivals, even though its sales fell 20.5 per cent last month. However, there was no signal of any improvement from Tata Motors, which saw volumes slip 40 per cent to 12,879 units.

Hyundai Motor India recorded a marginal dip of 0.8 per cent, selling 30,601 units but is cautiously optimistic. "We expect the market challenges to continue and have cautious optimism for the upcoming festive season," said Rakesh Srivastava, senior vice-president (sales & marketing), Hyundai Motor India.