Getting some respite from the sluggish performance of the last few months, the country's auto majors have reported a significant growth in October 2009. While Maruti Suzuki India, for instance, has posted a 32.45 per cent jump in total sales at 85,415 units in October compared to the same period last year, Hyundai Motor India's total sales for October 2009 stood at 51,736 units as against 46,596 units in October 2008, registering 11% cumulative growth.
Maruti's sales in the domestic market grew 21.01 per cent to 71,551 units in October from 59,127 units in the same month last year, while exports rose over two-fold to 13,864 units compared with 5,363 units in the year-ago period.
Sales of M800, however, declined by 5.53 per cent to 3,124 units compared to the same period last year. The A2 segment (comprising Alto, Wagon R, Estilo, Swift, A-Star and Ritz) witnessed a growth of 18.43 per cent at 51,437 units compared to the same period last year.
Sales in the A3 segment (consisting of SX4 and DZiRE) increased by 62.68 per cent to 8,804 units compared with 5,412 units in the corresponding period last year, the company said.
Maruti's passenger car sales in October rose 21.99 per cent to 71,383 units as against 58,515 units in the same month in 2008.
Hyundai Motor India's total sales for October 2009 stood at 51,736 units as against 46,596 units in October 2008. The domestic sales grew by 41.4% and accounted for 28,301 units as against 20,009 units in October 2008 while the overseas sales dipped by 3,152 units to 23,435 units in October 2009.
Commenting on the company's performance in October, Arvind Saxena, senior vice president - marketing and sales, HMIL, said, "The festive period of the last two months generated strong sales and has given the Indian automobile industry some respite from the sluggish performance of the last few months. Now it looks that this period of strong sales would propel the industry into a positive double digit growth for the remainder of the year. This might be the turning point the Indian automotive industry has been waiting for."
Meanwhile the country's second largest two-wheeler maker, Bajaj, also reported a 52.38 per cent increase in its motorcycle sales at 2,49,681 units in October 2009 as against 1,63,850 units sold in October last year.
"Bajaj motorcycles grew 52 per cent in October 2009, despite several supply constraints. Bajaj is confident of maintaining this growth rate for the rest of 2009-10," the company said in a press release. BAL's exports went up by 11.88 per cent to 84,012 units in October from 75,092 units a year ago. This was the highest-ever monthly export reported by the company.
Source : The Economic Times