HCV sales surge 202% in Apr-Dec

The domestic heavy commercial vehicle (HCV) market is in top gear with a whopping 202 per cent growth sales at 18,000 units for the nine months ended December 2006 against 5,960 units in the previous corresponding year, according to Society of Indian Automobiles Manufacturers data.

The robust sales growth came after a Supreme Court order banned overloading of commercial vehicles. The SC in December 2005 asked state governments to stop overloading and penalise transporters for extra tonnage.

Medium heavy commercial vehicles (MHCV) also saw a good growth in sales, of 40 per cent, for the period under review compared with a year ago.

The aggregate sales of commercial vehicles (CV) during the nine-month period grew 37 per cent on a year-on-year basis.

According to global rating agency Fitch Ratings, because of the SC verdict, the spurt in sales will continue for at least another year. After that the market will saturate and the sales will increase by an average 8 per cent to 10 per cent over the next five years.

An LCV can carry capacity up to 7.5 tonne, where as a MCV up to 25 tonne and an HCV between 25 tonne and 49 tonne.

During the period, market leader Tata Motors grew by 315.47 per cent selling 11,064 units as compared with 2,663 units during the same period in the previous year. Ashok Leyland was second selling 6,836 vehicles compared with 3,242 units during the corresponding period previous year.

Anirudh Bhuwalka, managing director and CEO, Asia Motor Works, another HCV maker, said, "Following the SC ban, the company has sold more than 500 high-end trucks during the first nine months of the current fiscal as compared to just 200 trucks sold during the full 12 month period of the previous fiscal".