Commercial Vehicles & #8217; Domestic Sales Up In July

For the first time this year, domestic sale of commercial vehicles increased in July 2001 on a month-on-month basis, driven by higher sales of heavy vehicles.

Sale of commercial vehicles is considered an important index of economic activity in the country. But analysts were quick to add that the low overall volumes reported by the companies was still an indicator of the continuing sluggish state of the economy.

Domestic sales of commercial vehicles (medium, heavy and light) in July 2001 at 9545 units were higher by 3.4 per cent over 9233 units registered in July 2000, a flash report from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) shows.

SIAM figures from the month of January to June this year show that month-on-month sales of commercial vehicles declined between 25.7 per cent in May and 2.7 per cent in February.

However, the marginal improvement in July is only a correction, said industry insiders. Ravi Kant, executive director of Tata Engineering, said,