With not much reason to celebrate from the festival season demand, carmakers' domestic ‘wholesales' numbers for October indicate a continuation of the dismal sales trend of the last two months.

‘Wholesales' represent only deliveries to dealers. Companies such as Hyundai, Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) had all posted double-digit wholesale growth in September, as they had stocked up in anticipation of strong sales in October.

Among the larger players, Maruti Suzuki's production loss of over 40,000 units in October, because of the 14-day workers' strike across its two plants (Gurgaon and Manesar), led to a 52 per cent drop in sales.

“Carmakers are reducing ‘wholesales' because the increase in retail in October was not as high as they had hoped. Though retail has improved over September, there is no real reason for sales to grow in November as there is no festival around,” a senior official at one of the largest car companies said.

Cannot match last year

He added, “With sales usually dipping by the year-end, every manufacturer is reducing stocks. It is still tough, the buoyancy is not there, plus we cannot hope to match the exceptional high growth of last year.”

Hyundai posted a 5 per cent drop in sales, while Tata Motors recorded a marginal three per cent increase on stronger sales of the new Indica and Vista models. Sales of the Tata Nano also rose 26 per cent (3,868 units), though much below the all-time high of 10,012 units (April 2011).

“We have seen that sales get a boost in the festival season but this year the sentiment has been tepid. We don't expect a major upswing in the near future, the challenging economic environment is affecting (the) industry. The Eon has been received well, we have got more than 9,000 bookings,” Mr Arvind Saxena, Director of Marketing and Sales at Hyundai Motor India said.

M&M's sales in October rose 10 per cent with its premium offering, the XUV 500, receiving over 8,000 bookings. Toyota Kirloskar saw a 63 per cent (10,762 units) rise, while Ford saw sales rise 21 per cent.

General Motors, which saw strong demand for the Chevrolet Beat diesel, posted flat sales at 10,062 units, while Honda Siel Cars and Volkswagen recorded a 5 per cent (5,526 units) and 67 per cent (7,266 units) sales increase, respectively.

Two-wheelers

Market leader Hero MotoCorp's wholesale numbers rose only by one per cent, though retail sales saw a double-digit growth to the highest-ever 6.5 lakh units in the month. Honda Motorcycles and Scooters posted 20 per cent higher sales, while Yamaha's bike sales rose 27 per cent to 47,240 units.

roudra.b@thehindu.co.in

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