PUNE: For the ninth month in a row, the bloodbath in the automobile market continues, with sales of all vehicle segments staying in the red in July.
The deepening crisis in the automobile sector that has also triggered large-scale job losses, to the tune of some 215,000 jobs cuts at the dealership, some 100,000 at the suppliers, and the total job loss to be in the ballpark of 330,000 people getting retrenched.
Sales of passenger vehicles, the barometer of the economy, to car dealers fell 30.98 per cent to 200,790 units in July, the data from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, or Siam, on Tuesday showed. The passenger car sales decreased 36 per cent to 122,956 units.
These passenger vehicle numbers are the worst since December 2000 when sales were down 35.22 per cent, along with cars which slumped 39.86 per cent.
Commercial vehicles sales dropped 25.71 per cent to 56,866 units. The medium and heavy commercial vehicles, which essentially are the sturdy backbone of the automobile sector, were down 37.48 per cent at 17,722 units. And the light commercial vehicles were also down by 18.79 per cent to 39,144 units.
The three-wheeler segment, with sales of 55,719 units, is also down 7.66 per cent. Motorcycle and scooters sales also declined 16.82 per cent to about 1.51 million units. In July, total automobile sales fell 18.71 per cent at 1.82 million units, the steepest.
The data also showed that domestic passenger vehicle production was down nearly 17 per cent in the month to align with the tepid demand. “The deepening crisis needs an urgent revival package from the government,” Vishnu Mathur, Director General at Siam, said. He said the situation is so grave that total job loss in the auto sector is roughly 330,000.
According to Siam in the previous downturns the sector witnessed in 2008-09 and 2013-14, at least some of the segments of the industry were growing.
But this time around all segments of the industry are witnessing decline in sales, Mathur pointed out.
He said the industry is doing everything possible to increase sales but it needs government stimulus package to prevent the crisis from worsening.
Mathur said while Siam has proposed an overall GST reduction to be brought on vehicles of all segments, rollout of the scrappage policy will give a push to new vehicle sales.
