Hinduja Group's flagship company Ashok Leyland is revising its domestic commercial vehicle sales target to about five per cent this fiscal from an earlier estimation of flat or negative sales, on the back of reviving market demand.
"We are now revising our target upwards, maybe around five per cent from the previous (estimates) that domestic sales would either be flat or even turn negative," Ashok Leyland Executive Director (Marketing) Rajiv Saharia said here.
He said the recent revival of sales in the commercial vehicle (CV) market has brought optimism.
"In the last few months, the overall market has looked up and this has made us re-think. Now at least we are positive about an upswing," Saharia said.
The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) says Ashok Leyland had a domestic sales of 47,632 units in 2008-09.
Its cumulative sales in the domestic market during the first six months of the current fiscal were down 40 per cent at 19,396 units, as against 32,326 units during the same period last year.
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The company sold 4,813 units in September this year, registering a fall of 11.75 per cent over 5,454 units during the same month last year.
"We expect a good second half during the fiscal with deliveries of 5,000 buses planned to various local and state transport bodies," Saharia said.
Ashok Leyland has a contract for delivery of 5,000 buses by March 2010 to a number of transport bodies under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).
It is also set to deliver 875 ultra low entry (ULE) buses to the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) during the next six months.
The company is also brining its Pantnagar plant on-stream within next few months. The plant would have an annual installed capacity of 50,000 units. Besides, Ashok Leyland is also increasing the capacity of its Alwar plant by 50 per cent this fiscal.