Truck, bus sales in top gear

Most manufacturers saw record sales in FY18, trend expected to continue in FY19

Truck and bus sales in India rose at a brisk pace in the financial year that ended March 31, with most companies in the sector reporting record sales volumes. A pickup in infrastructure projects, overload bans in some key states and easy financing fuelled the demand.

Cumulative commercial vehicle (CV) sales of the top four manufacturers rose 20.6 per cent to 856,000 units during 2017-18 over a year before, according to monthly sales data released by the companies on Monday, barring Bharat Benz, the truck brand of Daimler India Commercial Vehicles — it does not share monthly or yearly sales data.

Order flow at listed capital goods and construction companies, one of the primary users of CVs, rose sharply in FY18, according to the data compiled by the Business Standard Research Bureau. Orders from here rose 69 per cent during the year to about ~2.8 trillion.

Most manufacturers saw record sales. The strong performance of medium and heavy duty trucks, biggest contribution to a company’s profit, stood out. These M&HCV sales are often taken as a proxy for economic activity and were robust in most of FY18.

Despatches at Tata Motors, the market leader, were the highest in five years.

Automobile companies in India count despatches to dealers as sales. Tata Motors sold 399,000 units, up 23 per cent over the past year. Ashok Leyland, second largest, saw sales rise 21 per cent to 174,873 units. It was an equally good year for Volvo Eicher Commercial Vehicles, where March sales rose to a record 9,411 units, up 28.4 per cent. For the full year, it sold 65,921 units, up the same proportion over a year before.