New Delhi : The auto industry is upbeat about the festive season round the corner and is looking at increased sales over the next 2-3 months to push its growth figures.
“With festive season ahead to boost sales in the second half of the fiscal, we are eyeing double digit growth in the current fiscal,” Hero MotoCorp CMD and CEO Pawan Munjal told reporters at the SIAM (Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers) annual convention here on Wednesday.
Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Pvt Ltd (HMSI), which has already had record sales in August at 4.5 lakh units, is eyeing a 20 per cent growth in sales over the next two to three months of festive season.
“The sales will get a boost from rural markets and in the scooter category from the urban and semi-urban market,” HMSI Senior Vice President (Sales and Marketing) Y.S. Guleria said. The auto industry is also looking at expansion plans on the home front and overseas to boost growth in this fiscal, reports IANS. Hero MotoCorp said it is planning a new plant in Gujarat in the third quarter of this fiscal and another in Bangladesh in the fourth quarter. “The Bangladesh plant’s capacity is not much but the Gujarat one is big enough. We are also waiting to get possession of land for a plant in Andhra Pradesh. Globally, the country’s largest two-wheeler manufacturer is soon starting exports to Nigeria, Argentina and Mexico,” Munjal said.
HMSI is building on its installed capacity in Gujarat and Bengaluru plants. By the end of September, its Gujarat plant will have a capacity of 12 lakh, Guleria said.
“In Bengaluru we are on the lines of having the biggest two-wheeler plant. We have three lines of six lakh capacity and the fourth line is under construction,” Guleria added.
HMSI is looking at taking its total installed capacity from the current 5.8 million to 6.4 million by June next year.
The auto industry felt that though the (Bharat Stage) BS-IV norms are round the corner, it is getting ready for the bigger challenge thrown by the policymakers of adopting BS-VI by April 1, 2020.
The government has decided to implement BS-VI norms directly from BS-IV, altogether skipping BS-V.”We have accepted the challenge of BS-VI. The task is enormous,” Munjal said.
