Monday, November 21, 2011
By Pranjal Gera
Auto market believes March-April 2012 will turn tables in sales
The automobile manufacturers are now hoping that the Indian auto sector, which is passing through a gloomy phase in terms of sales due to rising petrol prices and increasing interest rates, will showcase some improvement from March and April months in 2012 onwards. The October month saw another downfall in sales that sums up to back-to-back four months of sink in sales this year.
The Indian automotive industry had its steepest monthly decline since December 2000 when it recorded a plunge of 23.8 percent in October. These figures have appeared as a surprise, to the second fastest developing auto market around the globe.
Keeping in mind the inflation, Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) has revised its sales targets of this financial year to a down of two to four percent. The actual estimated target was of minimum 16 percent.
The unmoved macro-economic situations were the reasons for the decline in sales of the auto market and will continue, if the same don’t see any change in near future, as said by Mr. Shashank Srivastava, the Chief General Manager for Marketing at Maruti Suzuki India (MSI). According to him, the sales of passenger car are witness a decline due to hike in petrol prices and increase in the rate of interest.
MSI comprises of small car Alto, hatchbacks Swift, Wagon R, and Estilo along with sedan DZire and SX4 in its array.
As per Mr. Srivastava, the company had revived its sales targets from 13 percent to mere 8 percent for this financial year, but that too seems very tough sighting the current market conditions. The government initiative to cut down the petrol prices by Rs 1.85 will not see any enhancement as far as the sales numbers are concerned, he added.
US based global auto giant General Motors also anticipates that the auto market will witness bright days from March 2012.
