Corona impact: Sales of passenger vehicles at 10 year low
Passenger vehicles sales have reached a ten-year low. SIAM, the body of automobile companies, released sales figures on Thursday. Accordingly, during April to December 2020, 17.77 lakh passenger vehicles were sold. In these, 21.17 lakh vehicles were sold in the 9 months of 2019. That means it has declined by 16%.
December quarter figures do not present correct picture
Siam President Kenichi Ayukawa said, “The December quarter and December figures are certainly good. But they do not fully reflect the reality of the auto industry. If you look at the data from April to December, many things are clear. Passenger and commercial vehicles Sales are the lowest in 10 years, two-wheeler in 7 years and three-wheeler in 20 years. ” During April-December, two-wheeler sales declined by 22.63%, commercial vehicles by 37.23% and three-wheelers by 74.25%.
Lockdown effect has shown in sales
From October to December, 8.97 lakh passenger vehicles have been sold. It has 14.44% growth. Growth in December stood at 13.6% and sold a total of 2.52 lakh vehicles. But according to Ayukawa, the decline was also going on in 2019-20. Therefore it would be wrong to see this growth on that basis. In addition, sales were almost closed from April to June. Its effect is also visible in the December quarter. Hence the figures for this quarter do not present the correct picture.
Uncertainty in industry due to lack of necessary components
Ayukawa said that there is a huge shortage of essential components like semiconductor and steel. Logistics costs have also increased. Therefore, there is considerable uncertainty in the industry. Nevertheless, 2021 is likely to be better than 2020. The PLI scheme, cheaper debt and increased government spending in rural areas will help the industry.
Sales of all categories of vehicles increased by 10.6% in December quarter
In the December quarter, 59.44 lakh vehicles of all categories have been sold. It has increased by 10.61%. Two-wheeler sales increased by 13.37% to 47.82 lakhs. But there is a 1.12% drop in commercial vehicles. 1.93 lakh commercial vehicles have been sold in three months.
