Auto dealers say worst is behind

Pune: The Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) on Wednesday said India's retail passenger vehicles sales for March rose 5 per cent from a month ago, while two-wheeler sales rose 10 per cent.

Dealers are now holding 40-45 days worth of inventory for passenger vehicles and 45-50 days worth of inventory for two-wheelers, according to a survey carried out by FADA. Earlier, it had reached 80 to 100 days in some categories, it said.

Passenger vehicle sales from April 2018 to March 2019, fell 10 per cent to 2.42 lakh units from a year earlier, while two-wheeler sales declined 7 per cent, the data showed.

"We at FADA believe that the worst for auto industry is now behind us and expect plateauing of the declining demand and expect sales to stabilise in their current normal range for the next 4-6 weeks till India's biggest democratic festival, The Elections, conclude and we head towards the onset of the monsoon," Ashish Harsharaj Kale, President at FADA, said in a statement.

He said a stable government, an above-average or average monsoon and a continued easing of monetary policy by the RBI, are expected to aid the auto sector going ahead. According to FADA retail sales of all categories of vehicles fell 8 per cent in the month of March 2019 at 1,682,656 units compared with the year ago period. However, in comparison to February 2019 there was a growth of 8 per cent.

While the two-wheeler sales led the charge which saw 13,24,823 units being sold in the month, followed by passenger vehicles at 242,708 units, commercial vehicles at 61,896 units and 3-wheelers at 53,229 units which were all positive compared to February 2019.