Honda Motorcycle & Scooters India (HMSI), country’s second largest two-wheeler maker by volumes, forecasts sales growth at its bikes business in the quarter starting in April 2016, aided by flexible production lines and new introductions.
During April-October 2015, HMSI reported a 13 per cent decline in motorcycle sales at 928,797 units. TVS Motor reported a four per cent increase at 427,927 units, while Bajaj reported a marginal rise at 1,157,190 units. HeroMotoCorp, which posted a drop of 3 per cent at 3,332,539 units in the period, saw its sales recover in the last few months.
HMSI attributed the decline in bike volumes to capacity constraints and its sustained focus on the scooter market.
“The major reason is due to limitations in our capacity. With all the three factories running full capacity, we had to choose between scooters and bikes,” Mr. Guleria said. “In any case, bike market was struggling for growth. With huge backlog of scooter orders, continuing growth momentum in scooter market and our leadership position in that segment, it made sense for us to focus on producing more scooters than motorcycles,” he said.
HMSI will be commissioning a new factory, its fourth plant in India, in Gujarat early next year. Since this is a full-fledged scooter plant, the company aims to shift production of scooters from other plants to Gujarat unit and use the production lines at other factories for making bikes, especially its new models.
“With flexible production lines, we would see positive growth in the bike segment from Q1 of next fiscal,” Y. S. Guleria, Senior Vice President – Sales & Marketing, HMSI told The Hindu .
It has also strengthened its position further in the 125cc segment with the roll out of new variant SB Shine SP with 5-speed option. “One of the key targets in the bike segment is to protect our dominant position in the 125cc segment where we have 43-44 per cent share. Our CB Shine is absolute leader in this category and it is going to complete 10 years next year. It has more than 30 lakh units since its launch,” said Mr.Guleria.
While industrywide motorcycle sales increased two per cent in November, cumulative bike sales for the 8-month period show a two per cent decline, according to data from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers.
