NEW DELHI: Passenger vehicle sales continued to slide in strong double-digits last month as uncertainty over GST rate cut on automobiles, weak market sentiment and the shradh period prompted customers to defer their buying plans.Shradh is a two-week period in the Hindu calendar when people usually put off any big-ticket purchases such as houses or automobiles.According to industry estimates, passenger vehicle sales fell by around 24% to 223,000 units in September. However, good monsoon and increased liquidity in the market helped the industry fare better in wholesale volumes sequentially, which rose by around 13% over August 2019.Industry numbers were, however, spoilt by market leader Maruti Suzuki which posted a drop in domestic sales by 27.1% to 110,454 units in September. Over August, the company’s volumes rose by 18.5% to cross the one-lakh mark last month.Maruti Suzuki MD Kenichi Ayukawa said while a meaningful recovery will take time, things are looking up. “Compared to last year, the market is totally different now. It is very difficult, but we have to gradually come up to high level. Compared to the previous month (August), September was better, and we are expecting October will be even better than September.”Hyundai Motor sold 40,705 units in the domestic market last month, which is a decline of 14.8% over the year-ago period.Hero MotoCorp’s sales fell 20.4% to 612,204 units in September. Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India reported a drop of 12.6% to see 485,659 units in the month under review.“While the market remained tough in September, auto sales registered an uptick from this August which is a positive sign,” concurred Rajesh Goel, senior V-P, Honda Cars India, adding, “We hope consumer sentiment improves further during the ongoing festive season and helps the sales momentum. There are attractive offers available in the market making this the best time for customers to buy new cars.”N Raja, deputy MD, TKM, said the recent corporate tax cut, minimum alternate tax and improved liquidity in the market have been a welcome structural change, which should boost the industry and also improve consumer sentiments.“With Navratra beginning from September 29-30, customer orders have been slightly encouraging. We hope the pace continues and the sluggishness in sales disappears in the festive season. The industry expects improvement in customer demand in October,” said Raja.In September, Honda Cars India’s sales dropped 37% to 9,301 units. Homegrown auto majors M&M and Tata Motors saw wholesale volumes decline 33% (to 14,333 units) and 56% (to 8,097 units), respectively. At Toyota Kirloskar Motor, sales fell 18% to 10,203 units.\71402163 Tata Motors said the company continued to focus on retail sales to trim its inventory. Mayank Pareek, president, PV business unit, Tata Motors, said, “Towards the end of the month, there was an encouraging response in terms of customer footfalls. Customers have responded well to our festive offers which is reflected in 11% more retail sales in September 2019 compared with August…Our focus continued to be on retail in line with our strategy of New Paradigm. In September 2019, our retail sales was 31% more than offtake, as a result dealer stock came down by around 10%.”
from Economic Times https://ift.tt/2mKHalS
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