Indian automobile producers post healthy sales for July

Indian automobile manufacturers saw higher sales in July with industry experts attributing the acceleration in demand to good monsoon and positive consumer sentiments.

"The automotive industry is in the recovering phase, with good monsoon and positive customer sentiments, the growth this year is expected to be better than last year," said Abdul Majeed, Partner with Price Waterhouse.

Passenger cars, utility vehicles and two wheeler manufacturer`s reported positive sales growth for last month, whereas a leading commercial vehicle maker`s off-take declined.

The country`s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki reported a 12.7% increase in its total sales for last month.

The company sold 1,37,116 units during the month under review -- up from 1,21,712 units sold in the same month last year.

It also posted its highest ever monthly domestic sales for the month. The sales surged by 13.9% to 1,25,778 units, from 1,10,405 units sold in the July 2015.

Exports during the month increased marginally by 0.3 percent to 11,338 units as compared to 11,307 units in July last year.

The second largest car maker Hyundai Motor reported an overall sales growth of 10.7%, with total sales for the last month at 55,807 units, as against 50,411 units sold in the corresponding month of 2015.

The automobile manufacturer`s domestic sales grew by 12.9% and exports rose by five% during July 2015.

Another major automobile manufacturer Tata Motors` passenger and commercial vehicle sales including exports edged higher by seven% to 43,160 vehicles.

The company`s domestic sales of commercial and passenger vehicles grew by eight% to 37,789 units.

Mahindra and Mahindra`s (M&M) total sales rose by 14%.

The company sold 39,458 units during the month under review from an off-take of 34,652 units during the corresponding period of last year.

In addition, the company`s exports surged by 16% to 4,153 units from 3,565 units shipped-out during July 2015.

Ford India`s total sales grew to 17,742 units in July 2016, up from 13,116 units sold in the like month in the previous fiscal. The company`s domestic sales grew to 7,076 vehicles, while exports grew to 10,666 vehicles.

Eicher Motors logged 31% sales growth, selling 53,378 units in July 2015 from 40,760 units sold in the corresponding month last year. The exports of the company rose by 40%.

In two wheeler segment, Hero MotoCorp`s overall sales grew by 9.13%. 

According to the company, its total sales for the last month stood at 532,113 units of two-wheelers -- up from 487,580 units sold in the corresponding month of 2015.

However, commercial vehicles major Ashok Leyland logged a five% drop in sales volume last month selling 10,492 units, down from 11,054 units sold in July 2015.