Bajaj Auto July sales down 5% at 3.44 lakh units

Moneycontrol Bureau

Bajaj Auto's total sales in July slipped 5% year-on-year to 3,44,150 units amid sluggish demand for motorcycles, especially the premium segment, where the Pune-based company is a dominant player with its Pulsar range. Three-wheeler sales also continued to be slow. The company's motorcycle sales last month declined 3% to 3,08,858 units, while three-wheeler commercial vehicle sales slumped 23% to 35,292 units. Its exports fell 13% to 1,25,501 units in July. Bajaj Auto's exports were hit after a sharp hike in import duties by Sri Lanka in April. The company typically used to export 10,000 units each of two-wheelers and three-wheelers. But shipments to the island nation dropped to virtually zero after the distributor there focused on clearing out existing inventory following the duty hike. The company last month cut prices of its two-wheelers and three-wheelers in Srilanka by around 10%. Apart from Sri Lanka, Bajaj Auto's exports to Egypt had also been impacted due to political unrest there. The company said on Thursday that there has been a partial recovery in both the markets and further gains are expected in August. Meanwhile, Kevin Dsa, Bajaj Auto's VP - finance told CNBC-TV18 that there had been a good response for the recently launched Discover ST 125 cc motorcycle and the Pulsar 200 NS. He is expecting over 10,000 unit sales of the Pulsar 200 NS by September. Over the April-July period, Bajaj Auto's total sales declined 2% to 14,23,121 units. Bajaj Auto shares were down 0.7% at Rs 1,603.15 on NSE in morning trade.