August Auto Sales Slump On High Fuel And Interest Costs.

NEW DELHI/CHENNAI: The Indian automobile sector Thursday reported dismal sales for August, as demand continued to be hit by high interest costs and fuel rises.

Sales of Maruti Suzuki, the country's largest car maker, in August fell 12.7 percent, partly because of labour unrest at its Manesar factory. The company managed to sell a total of 91,442 vehicles in the month, including 14,356 units for export as compared to 104,791 vehicles in the like month of 2010.

This was the company's third-straight decline in sales.

August did not being any relief for the automobile sector, which is facing rising input costs on the one hand and sluggish sales due to rising fuel and interest costs.

According to the data furshined by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturer (SIAM) the growth rate of the industry during April-July was 13.55 percent. However, the rate was the lowest in two-years for the June-July period.

Hyundai Motors' too came out with dismal August sales with a marginal growth of one percent, powered by a 10.5 percent increase in exports.

The company managed to sell 51,030 units in the month against 50,633 units sold in the like period of last year.

The domestic sales dropped by 6.7 percent in August at 26,677 units as compared to 28,601 units sold in the corresponding month of last year.

While exports grew by 10.5 percent at 24,353 units against 22,032 units in August 2010.

"The market continues to be tough and there are no signs of recovery in the immediate future," said Arvind Saxena, director, marketing and sales, Hyundai Motor India.

The August sales of Tata Motors declined by three percent at 64,078 units.

Domestic sales of the the company's commercial and passenger vehicles in the month went down by two percent at 59,874 units from 60,797 units sold in August 2010.

The company's exports declined by 18 percent in August at 4,204 units as compared to 5,157 units in the like period of 2010.

Meanwhile, in the two-wheeler segment, Hero MotoCorp came out with good sales figure for August, which grew by 18.6 percent at 503,654 units as compared to 424,617 units sold in the same period last year.

The August sales performance has set the pace for the exciting festive season ahead of us as we look to ride our present buoyancy," said Anil Dua, senior vice president (marketing and sales), Hero MotoCorp.

The company further reported an increase of 21 percent in its cumulative sales between April to August this year at 2.5 million units, over the 2,086,342 units sold in the like period last year.

Two and three-wheeler major TVS Motor too logged good sales figures for August which grew at 14 percent at 194,898 units (two wheelers 190,184 units, three wheelers 4,714 units) up from 170,735 units (two wheelers 167,109 units, three wheelers 3,626 units) registered during August 2010.

The company's cumulative sales for the months of April to August 2011 grew by 15 percent with sales of 920,990 units against 800,789 units recorded in the previous comparable period.

Source : economictimes.indiatimes.com