Indian truck sales plummet for 11th straight month
Stagnation of freight rates and high interest rates has adversely affected truck sales in India. Known around the world for their use of bright colors, Indian trucks have registered a dip in sales for the 11th straight month.
ET reports, this downward spiral has been witnessed over the past few months and has been experienced by Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland. Sales of Tata’s medium to heavy trucks dipped to a four year low in January as it stood at 8,722 units as against 18,339 units in the same month in 2012. Ashok Leyland too saw a dip in demand, posting a 25% drop in sales from 9200 units in January 2012 to 6863 units in January 2013. These figures are causing companies to do a rethink on fresh investments till such time as performance improves across all categories.
PricewaterhouseCoopers India have stated that this scenario is far from over where the heavy commercial vehicle industry is concerned. They state that this is likely to continue for the next couple of months with a revival only coming by the second half of the year 2013.
