The economic slowdown is impacting not only the sales of heavy vehicles but also light commercial vehicles with Ashok Leyland reporting a sharp dip in sales in June in both the segments.
While the fall in sales of small commercial vehicle ‘Dost’ was less than that of heavy vehicles, this was a small consolation because both are different products with huge price difference.
In a notification to the stock exchanges, Ashok Leyland informed that commercial vehicle sales during June 2013 took a 36.50 per cent knock, dipping to 4,714 units compared with 7,421 units in the same month last year.
'Dost' sales
Sales of Dost, a SCV with a payload of 1.25 tonnes to enable carrying a higher tonnage of aggregated small loads, did not escape the demand slowdown and witnessed a 17.3 per cent decline in sales to 2,253 units compared with 2,725 units in June 2012. Total sales fell to 6,967 units from 10,146 units, down 31.3 per cent.
April-June sales
Ashok Leyland, during the first three months (April-June) of the current fiscal, saw a 26.4 per cent decline in the sales of commercial vehicles to 14,897 units compared with 20,239 units during the same quarter in 2012-13.
The fall in sales of Dost was much less at 5.8 per cent — 6,824 units compared with 7,248 units in Q1 last fiscal. Total sales during the first quarter stood at 21,721 units against 27,487 units, a decline of 20.9 per cent.