After recording impressive sales in the last fiscal, both in domestic and export markets, Indian auto industry is likely to grow at 10-14 per cent during the current financial year, Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) President Pawan Goenka said here on Friday after releasing sales data for 2009-10. In the last fiscal, the automobile industry reported a 26.4 per cent growth in sales, thanks to the government's stimulus packages and lower interest rates besides some incentives announced in overseas markets. In 2009-10, total vehicle sales stood at over 1.22-crore as compared to 97.24-lakh units in 2008-09.
Pleasant surprise
“Last fiscal was one of the best years for growth. When we started the year, we did not expect such a high growth, we are pleasantly surprised. The strong sales have made India the second fastest growing market after China that had a 42 per cent growth last year followed by Germany with 23 per cent even,” Mr. Goenka said. He, however, pointed out that the auto industry in the current fiscal might witness some obstacles due to strengthening of commodity prices, excise duty hike, raising of interest rates and increase in vehicle prices due to the new emission norms, leading to an average 8-10 per cent hike on the prices, he added.
In 2009-10, domestic passenger car sales rose by 25.10 per cent to 15.26-lakh units, while motorcycle sales went up by 25.88 per cent to 73.41-lakh units and that of commercial vehicles by 38.31 per cent to 5.31-lakh units.
Exports
About exports, Mr. Goenka said Indian carmakers registered a robust 33.23 per cent growth in the last fiscal at 4.41-lakh units, mainly due to demand for small cars in the European nations. Largest exporter Hyundai witnessed a growth of 12.75 per cent at 2.85-lakh units, while Maruti Suzuki saw over two-fold jump in overseas sales at 1.46-lakh units.
Overall vehicle exports grew by 18 per cent at 18-lakh units.
