Commercial Vehicle sales down in December

Domestic sales of commercial vehicle (CVs) in the country was down year on year in December 2019, as the automobile sector continued to an economic slowdown. However, the month on month sales shows a growth of 10 to 15 per cent increase in sale due to heavy discounts.

The Countries largest commercial vehicle manufacturer TATA Motors reported a 30 per cent drop in domestic commercial vehicle sale at 31,469 unit in December, from 36,180 unit in last December 2018.  Retail was higher than offtake by about 13.8 percent in December with further stock reduction. Overall sale continued to grow for second month in a row, with medium and heavy commercial vehicle sale higher than November 2019 by 15 percent.

 India’s second largest commercial vehicle manufacturer Ashok Leyland reported a 29 percent drop in overall domestic sale to 10,378 unit in December 2019, as compared to 14,718 units a year before. However, month on month sales shows the growth of 10.7 per cent,  from 9,377 units in November. The main business of Asok leyland Trucks, were down by 59 per cent in December to 3,809 units, from 9,237 units a year  before. However the sales of trucks were increased by 10.5 per cent from the previous month. The business sales rose 85 per cent to 2,560 units in December from 1,384 units a year ago.

Light Commercial vehicle sales down to two per cent to 4,009 units, from 4,097. VE Commercial Vehicles (VECV) , a Volvo group and Eicher Motors joint venture, reported a 19.1 per cent decline in the total sales at 5,042 units in December. But in December 2018 they sold 6,236 units. Eicher branded trucks and buses shows a sale of 4,910 units in December, were 19.7 per cent less than the 6,113 units in December 2018. In the domestic commercial vehicle market Eicher branded trucks anb buses had sales of 4,410 units, down 13.7 per cent from December 2018.

From the sales statements reported by the commercial vehicle manufactures Analyst concluded that, the reason for the growth in month on month sales was the heavy discounts. “Discounts and Offers have now started tapering off, due to lower inventory levels. Light CVs (LCVs)  continue to do better than M&HCVs” says Motilal Oswal, the financial services entity.