Steepest monthly fall in nearly four years, according to SIAM
Vehicle sales registered steepest monthly fall in nearly four years at 9.43 per cent in September with the upcoming festive season failing to boost sentiment of car and motorcycle buyers.
According to the data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manu- facturers (SIAM) on Wednesday, domestic car sales in September declined by 5.36 per cent, while the motorcycle segment dipped 18.85 per cent, the sharpest decline in three years and nine months.
Total sales of vehicles across categories registered a dip of 9.43 per cent to 14.18 lakh units last month as against 15.65 lakh units in September 2011. The rate of fall is the steepest since December 2008, when sales had declined by 18.25 per cent.
“The overall economic situation of the country, low sentiments, high petrol prices and interest rates are among the factors which are hurting the overall sales of the auto industry,” SIAM President S. Sandilya told reporters here.
During the month, domestic car sales declined to 1.57 lakh units from 1.66 lakh units in the same month last year.
Motorcycle sales last month fell by 18.85 per cent to 7.54 lakh units, from 9.28 lakh units in the same month the previous year. The sharpest decrease earlier was 23 per cent in December 2008.
The scooter segment’s overall sales grew 10.17 per cent to 2.54 lakh units, from 2.30 lakh units. Total sales of commercial vehicles in September rose marginally to 70,683 units from 70,658 units in the year-ago period, SIAM said.
In the three-wheeler category, sales went up marginally to 49,576 units, from 49,271 units in the same month last year.
Keywords: SIAM, automobile industry
