Cheerful Forecast

It has not been the easiest of times for the automotive industry with 2 successive years of drought wiping off a big chunk of gains made by the industry in the previous 3 years. The outlook is a lot more positive this fiscal with the India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecasting an above normal monsoon. This has brought cheers to the automotive industry. Almost all segments are hoping for a spurt in demand in the coming quarters especially for tractors, two-wheelers, commercial vehicles and even passenger cars.

The stocks of the automotive companies had immediate positive impact of the monsoon prediction as they outperformed the market. Bajaj Auto saw the biggest jump among two-wheeler makers with its shares gaining 4.9%. Shares of Hero MotoCorp jumped 3.3% and of TVS Motor Company 2.5%. Among the passenger vehicle companies, Mahindra was the biggest gainer with over 7% rise in its share price. Leaving the recessionary trend behind, these companies are expecting to embark on a growth track in 2016-17.

Last month was very special for Tata Motors and Nissan Motor India as they launched their small cars Tiago and Datsun redi-GO, respectively. Tiago received more than 1 lakh enquiries in a month. It has been the talk of the town owing to its innovative design and competitive pricing. Tata developed this small car from the scratch and ticked all the boxes right.

The much-awaited Datsun redi-GO finally made its global debut in India on April 14. The redi-Go became the third Datsun product to have made its world premier in India and second car to be built on the RenaultNissan Alliance’s CMF-A platform on which the Kwid was built earlier. Nissan India is very much optimistic about this product and looks forward to taste success with this small car in India.

The focus of this issue is the dynamic North India and my colleague Deepanshu Taumar has strived hard to make this a special one. We have also featured Rajsriya Automotive in the Shopfloor section. The Southbased company excels in manufacturing tubular components and is entering into two-wheeler body panel making, showing its commitment and high standards of quality.

Wishing you pleasant reading.

Bhargav TS Executive Editor s.bhargav@nextgenpublishing.net