Date:14/02/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/02/14/stories/2003021402271600.htm

Business

Car, commercial vehicle sales surge in Jan.

NEW DELHI FEB. 13 . Domestic car sales surged by 10.15 per cent in January with automakers such as Maruti, Hyundai and Tata Engineering leading the growth.

However, General Motors, Fiat and Hindustan Motors drove into negative territory during the month.

Total sales rose for the eighth successive month to 54,825 cars from 49,769 cars sold in the same month last year, data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) showed today. Cumulative (April-January 2002-03) sales grew by 8.61 per cent to 4.36 lakh cars from 4.02 lakh units a year earlier. Commercial vehicles also continued with their strong performance this fiscal clocking a 35.32 per cent rise in January at 18,650 units over 13,782 units in the year-ago month. Cumulative commercial vehicle sales stood higher by 32.67 per cent at 1.50 lakh units against 1.13 lakh units. Domestic two-wheeler sales increased by 6.6 per cent to 4.06 lakh units in January.

For the first ten months this fiscal, sales in this category went up by 19.43 per cent to 41.19 lakh units on the back of a strong demand for motorcycles.

Sales of motorcycles went up by 11 per cent to 3.09 lakh units in January while cumulative sales stood higher by 33.81 per cent at 31.16 lakh units.

Scooters also continued to ride on a turnaround in demand with sales increasing by 4.5 per cent to 70,076 units during the review month. However, cumulative scooter sales fell by 7.55 per cent to 7.21 lakh units.

Sales of mopeds fell by 24 per cent to 27,224 units with cumulative sales being 17.14 per cent lower at 2.82 lakh units.

The growing utility vehicle segment recorded a 28 per cent jump in sales during January at 11,491 units while its cumulative sales increased by 5.75 per cent to 89,555 units. However, sales of multi-purpose vehicles dropped by 7 per cent to 5,390 units during the review month.

Three-wheeler sales rose by 17.48 per cent to 20,668 units with passenger and goods carriers posting higher sales.

Cumulative three-wheeler sales increased by 14.36 per cent to 1.88 lakh units.

— PTI