August auto sales continue to disappoint; exports rise

Auto sales continued to decline in August as well. While M&M and Tata Motors missed street expectations, Maruti and Bajaj Auto surprised positively. Another key positive emerging from the auto sales data is the rise in exports almost across the board, reports CNBC-TV18's Pragya Bhardwaj.

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Tata Motors reported a degrowth in total sales at 49,611 units versus nearly 72,000 (Y-o-Y). M&M too showed a similar trend with total sales slowing to 37,897 units versus over 45,800 units last year.
Tata Motors' domestic sales of commercial and passenger vehicles for August 2013 was at 44,717 units. Its sales of commercial vehicles, during the period, in the domestic market was at 33,153 units, including 24,904 light commercial vehicles and 8,249 medium and heavy commercial vehicles. Sales of passenger vehicles in August were at 11,564. The company's sales from exports were 4,894 units in August 2013. Cumulative sales from exports for the fiscal were 20,606 units.
Meanwhile, Mahindra & Mahindra's total sales fell 17.32 percent to 37,897 units in August . The company had sold 45,836 units in the same month last year. In August this year, M&M's domestic sales stood at 35,159 units as against 42,826 units in the same month last year, down 17.9 percent.
The country's largest car-maker, Maruti Suzuki India, reported 61.24 percent increase in total sales in August at 87,323 units as against 54,154 units in the same month last year. Sequentially the growth was at 4.83 percent.
The company said its domestic sales increased by 51.6 percent during the month to 76,018 units as against 50,129 units in August last year.
Sales of mini segment cars, including M800, Alto, A-Star and WagonR, increased by 45.1 percent to 32,019 units as compared to 22,062 units in the year-ago month, MSI said in a statement.
The company said sales of the compact segment comprising Swift, Estilo, Ritz surged over two fold to 17,409 units in August this year as against 6,059 units last year.
MSI said sales of its popular compact sedan Dzire zoomed over four fold during the month under review at 13,723 units as against 3,085 units in August 2012. The company's mid-sized sedan SX4 registered a dip of 22.1 percent to 348 units as against 447 units in the same month last year. There was no sale of premium sedan Kizashi during the month.
Sales of utility vehicles, including Gypsy, Grand Vitara and Ertiga, stood at 4,563 units in August this year, down 33.7 percent from 6,883 units in the corresponding month last year. Exports during the month surged nearly three fold (38.64 percent Q-o-Q) to 11,305 units as compared to 4,025 units in August last year, MSI said.
Bajaj Auto Ltd has informed BSE that its sales stood at 3,12,188 units in August 2013 as compared to 3,44,906 units in August 2012, a degrowth of 9 percent. (With inputs from agencies)