CV industry growth in 2017

The first of the two panel discussions, as part of the Apollo-CV Awards 2017, focused on the growth of CV industry in 2017.

Responding to V G Ramakrishnan’s question on CV market having reached the 2011 level with 592,000 unit sales and good support from bus segments, Nalin Mehta expressed that commercial vehicle sales will grow as the (Indian) economy grows. “The big ticket growth in bus business,” he said, “came from STUs and translated into a growth of 153 per cent this year, statistically speaking.” Mehta emphasised on three factors – capitalising on JNNURM scheme, working on agendas using PPP approach, and getting independent operators to ply, that led to growth fuelled by STUs. Pointing at a shift taking place from LCVs to ICVs, he stated, “The delay or extension of bus body code implementation created an element of uncertainty. Manufacturers were not certain of how quickly it would be implemented, and if they will be ready. Bus body builder, a formidable part of the business today, were behind it. The Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) has been working towards a common mandate. If there is no clear legislation about sleeper bus code or about long haul buses, the growth volume is going to be more or less flat.”

Market shift

Diverting attention to trucks, A Sreerama Rao stated that the number of trucks required by customers has gone down

on the basis of the on-road information his company has gathered over the last seven years. Expressing that a new model was always found to be more productive, Rao averred, “Transformation is also taking place in haulage trucks. A movement is taking place from