Tata Motors, M&M Aug sales up; Manesar strike hurts Maruti
India's largest commercial vehicle maker Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra, India's top utility vehicle maker, saw their sales rise in August. However, Maruti Suzuki, hit by the labour unrest at Manesar plant, saw a sharp decline.
September 02, 2012 / 17:11 IST
Monecontrol Bureau
India's largest commercial vehicle maker Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra, India's top utility vehicle firm, saw their sales rise in August. However, Maruti Suzuki, hit by the labour unrest at Manesar plant, saw a sharp decline.Maruti Suzuki, the India's largest passenger car company, sold 54,154 units last month, a 41% decline from a year ago. Its total domestic sales were down 35% to 50,129 units, and exports tumbled 72% to 4,025 units."Owing to the lock out at the Manesar plant (July 21-August 20) the supply of Swift, DZire, SX4 and A-star models was impacted," it said on Saturday.Maruti had shut the Manesar plant, following a workers unrest that left a general manager dead and 96 supervisors and managers injured, many having fractures. Production resumed on August 21, under heavy security.Due to the strike, it could only sell 3,085 Swift DZire compact sedans, down 61% year-on-year, while sales of compact cars, which includes the Swift, Ritz and Estilo were down 62% to 6,059 units. Sales of its petrol powered small cars continued to take a hit. Sales of 800, AStar, Alto and WagonR were down 41% to 22,062 units last month.However, utility vehicle sales accelerated to 6,883 units in August, from 1,290 units sold a year ago, helped by continued popularity of the Ertiga MUV, which was launched in April.Elsewhere, utility vehicle maker Mahindra & Mahindra continued to see a good demand, August sales up 22% to 45,836 units. Its passenger vehicle (PV) sales were up 30% to 21,831 units and four-wheeler commercial vehicle (CV) sales rose 20% to 14,267 units. However, three-wheeler CV sales declined 3% to 6,004 units and trucks sold by the Mahindra Navistar joint venture slipped 2% to 724 units.Meanwhile, Tata Motors reported a 12% year-on-year growth in total sales at 71,826 units in August. Sales of its PVs were up 33% to 22,311 units, helped by over five-fold increase in Nano sales at 6,507 units. Sales of the Indica range also rose, however Indigo sales declined last month.Tata Motors' CV sales were up 5% to 45,142 units, as LCV sales rose 16% to 30,461 units. However, demand for medium and heavy trucks remained under pressure in the domestic market, sales there declining 12% to 14,681 units.Tata Motors' CV rival VE Commercial Vehicles Ltd, a 50-50 joint venture between Eicher Motors and Volvo Group, reported sales of 3,909 units, up 7%. While domestic sales were up 9% to 3,712 units, exports slipped 16% to 197 units. It too continued to see sluggish demand for heavy duty trucks. Total HD sales were down 4% from a year ago to 628 units. Among other auto makers, Toyota Kirloskar Motor's total sales rose 20% to 13,995 units, helped by strong demand for its Innova, Fortuner and Camry. Nachiket Kelkar
nachiket.kelkar@network18online.com Discover the latest Business News, Sensex, and Nifty updates. Obtain Personal Finance insights, tax queries, and expert opinions on Moneycontrol or download the Moneycontrol App to stay updated!
