India's car sales post moderate growth

Monday, 14 June 2004, 19:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: India's car market posted a moderate 9.8 percent growth in May after expanding at a blistering pace in the last one year, figures showed Monday. The total number of passenger cars sold in May touched 60,618 units, registering a tepid growth over 55,165 logged in the same month in 2003, figures released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) show. Cumulative sales in the April-May period posted a growth of 19.68 percent to 116,890 units, said the industry association. Sales of Maruti Udyog Ltd, India's largest carmaker, rose 5.7 percent to 32,663 units in May. Maruti, a unit of Japanese auto major Suzuki Motor Corp, sells a dozen car models in the domestic market. Tata Motors, the automobile manufacturing arm of India's diversified business conglomerate Tata Sons, saw its sales rising 31.2 percent to 11,487 units due to increased buying of its popular hatchback Indica. Sales of the Indian arm of South Korean automobile major Hyundai Motor, on the other hand, witnessed a fall of 13.3 percent to 7,715 units. India's car market has come a long way in recent years. From the economically priced Maruti-Suzuki 800 compact cars to the Maybach, the new car craze in India is unmistakable. Car sales in the domestic market rose from 541,491 in fiscal 2002-03 to 696,207 in the year ended March 31, 2004, registering a growth of 27 percent year-on-year as a booming economy boosted consumer spending. Powered by sharply higher farm output, the Indian economy grew by a dazzling 10.4 percent in the quarter ended December, outstripping China's growth rate and making it one of the most dynamic economies globally. Car buyers also rushed to take advantage of sharply lower loan interest rates in the past year. According to the National Council of Applied Economic Research, a New Delhi-based economic research group, car sales in India would rise to one million vehicles a year by 2012. And to take a larger share of the pie in the growing market, local and overseas carmakers are vying with one another to roll out new models notwithstanding ubiquitous traffic snarls and potholes. SIAM said sales of commercial vehicles, a key barometer of the country's economic health, registered a growth of 41 percent in May to 23,432 units.
Source: IANS
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