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Maruti's pie shrinks, share drops to 62% in 1999-2000

The small cars -- Matiz, Santro, Uno, Indica and Zen -- pulled the Indian automobile industry out of a recession and the passenger car segment recorded a 55 per cent growth in the fiscal 1999-2000. However, the share of market leader Maruti Udyog Limited, or MUL, dropped to 62.2 per cent from 79.6 per cent a year ago despite a growth in sales volume.

According to latest figures released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, or SIAM, a total of 638,815 passenger car units were sold during the year as against 409,951 units a year earlier.

Barring Mercedes Benz India and General Motors India, all manufacturers recorded a positive growth during the year. The year also saw two other manufacturers -- Premier Automobiles Limited, or PAL, and PAL-Peugeot Limited -- witnessing near erosion of sales with despatches dropping by 97 per cent.

Maruti sold 397,586 units during the year, up 21 per cent from 326,523 units a year ago. Hyundai Motor India Limited closed the year as the second largest manufacturer having sold 75,895 units, up from 17,648 units a year ago.

Riding on increased demand for its flagship model Indica, Telco sold achieved total sales of 55,776 units as against 4,732 units a year ago.

Daewoo followed with a nearly three-fold growth in sales at 40,217 units as against 10,121 units in the previous fiscal.

Fiat India Automobiles Limited sold 20,751 passenger cars in the year as against 10,117 units a year ago.

Ford India Limited's Ikon set streets on fire and helped the company close the year with total sales of 8,023 units, up from 3,233 units in 1998-99.

Mitsubishi Lancer continued to be in great demand, aiding Hindustan Motors to record total sales of 26,860 units, up 33.5 per cent over the previous year while Honda SIEL saw demand for its mid-size car city slipping. The company sold 9,698 units of City, up marginally from the previous year's 9,631 units.

General Motors India Limited, GMIL, sold 3,047 units during the 1999-2000 fiscal, down 13 per cent from 3,524 units a year ago.

Mercedes Benz India Limited recorded a 19.9 per cent drop in sales for the year at 893 units.

PAL-Peugeot managed to sell 9 units of its Peugeot 309 car, while PAL sold 60 units of Premier Padmini during the year.

According to the SIAM figures, truck sales too gained pace in 1999-2000 with a growth of 22.4 per cent to 171,319 vehicles.

Two-wheeler sales grew 10.97 per cent to 3,776,778 units from 3,403,427 a year earlier.

The double-digit two-wheeler sales growth was due to a 28.74 per cent rise in motorcycle sales.

Motorcycle sales in the year were 1,796,734 as against 1,395,567 units a year earlier. However, scooter sales for the year dipped 5.42 per cent to 1,253,969 units from 1,325,868 units a year earlier.

Moped sales posted a marginal growth of 6.48 per cent in the fiscal to 726,075 units from 681,902 units a year earlier.

In March, the last month of the financial year, truck sales were 24,548 vehicles, up 2.15 per cent from 24,032 a year earlier.

In the same month, two-wheeler sales were 391,119 units as against 354,622 a year earlier.

Car sales were as robust in March as in other months of the year, with total sales of 73,090 vehicles, up 47.93 per cent from 49,410 in the same month a year earlier, the SIAM data said.

UNI

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