Automobile exports in the first six months of the current fiscal year rose by 14.3 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y), led by gains in shipments of passenger vehicles (PVs) and two-wheelers, and there was no impact of the Israel-Iran war as of now on the exports from India, a top official at Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), told businessline.

According to SIAM data recently, the grand total of all vehicles’ exports in the April-September period stood at 25,28,248 units as compared with 22,11,457 units in the same period last year.

Impacts

“There is no early signs as yet, but we will have to again huddle up with the members to see if there’s any impact (due to Israel-Iran war) and if we need any support that we have to seek from the government. But, so far no impact as such,” Shailesh Chandra, President, SIAM, told businessline.

He said the key markets like Latin America and Africa, which had slowed down for various reasons, have bounced back and that has been the main reason for exports coming back.

During the April-September period, the exports of total PVs grew by 12 per cent y-o-y to 3,76,679 units as compared with 3,36,754 units in the same period last year.

According to Frank Torres, Divisional Vice President-AMIEO (Africa, Middle East, India, Europe, and Oceania) Region Business Transformation and President-Nissan India Operations, “I think in the last year, the auto industry already faced many conflicts and we have been able to overcome. Of course it is difficult for us and there are always impact, but we are taking all the measures that we need to counter this. The good thing is that despite all of these we will export the new Magnite to almost 65 markets.”

It was too early to judge on cost impacts because of logistics costs also, he said adding that the Red Sea crisis has already been there and the automobile industry was taking all the measures to counter the impact.

The total two-wheeler exports grew by 16.2 per cent y-o-y to 19,59,145 units during the period as compared with 16,85,907 units in April-September 2023.

Exports

Commercial vehicle exports also rose 12 per cent y-o-y to 35,731 units in the first six months of the fiscal year as compared with 31,864 units in the same period last year.

However, three-wheeler shipments declined by 1.3 per cent y-o-y to 1,53,199 units during the period as compared with 1,55,154 units in the April-September period last year.

Various African nations and other regions faced challenges due to devaluation of currencies, which impacted the vehicle shipments as the nations focussed on import of essential items. Automobile exports had declined 5.5 per cent in FY24 due to the monetary crisis in various overseas markets.

Overall exports stood at 45,00,492 units in the last fiscal year as compared with 47,61,299 units in FY23.

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