Telco, Leyland sales dip in M&H commercial vehicles segment

Telco, Leyland sales dip in M&H commercial vehicles segment
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

JULY 30: Sales of commercial vehicles grew by a meagre 0.27 per cent during the quarter ended June 30, 2000 due to negative growth recorded by medium and heavy (M&H) commercial vehicle majors like TELCO and Ashok Leyland.

The M&H commercial vehicles segment, which comprised over 55 per cent of the total commercial vehicles sales of 32,077 units, recorded 7.09 per cent drop in sales at 18,137 units in April-June of 2000-01 against 19,521 units in the same period of 1999-2000, according to the figures released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM).

Sales of auto giant Tata Engineering (TELCO) declined by 8.1 per cent as the company managed to sell 11,768 units during the reference period as compared to 12,808 units in the first three months of the previous fiscal.

Hinduja flagship company Ashok Leyland's sales alsodipped by 4.9 per cent at 6,341 units during the first three months of 2000-01 as against 6,665 units in the corresponding period of the previous year.

Hindustan Motors managed to sell only 28 vehicles, 20units less from 48 units, sold during April-June of 1999-2000.

However, the Light Commercial Vehicles (LCVs) segmentrecorded a positive sales growth of 11.8 per cent during the first quarter of the current fiscal with sales of 13,940 units over 12,470 units in the same period last year.

Market leader in the LCV segment, TELCO, shrugged off itsor show witnessed in the HCV segment with a growth of 6.3 per cent, selling 8634 units during the quarter ended June 30, 2000 over 8119 vehicles in the comparable period last year.

TELCO's other competitors like Mahindra and Mahindra andEicher Motors achieved impressive double digit growth of 29.8 per cent and 34.7 per cent respectively.

Eicher Motors, which has recently announced its plan toenter the heavy commercial segment, sold 1581 vehicles during April-June 2000-01 as against 1174 units during the same period of the previous year.

Sales of 1913 LCVs kept Mahindra and Mahindra on thepositive growth path as it bettered sales of 1473 vehicles recorded during the last quarter of the previous year.

Bajaj Tempo was the only victim in the LCV segment with24.1 percent drop in sales to 732 units during the first quarter of 2000-01 from 965 units in the corresponding period last year.

Other LCV producers like Swaraj Majda and Ashok Leylandsold 980 LCVs and 100 units during the reference period, up from 694 units and 45 units sold last year.