Mahindra and Mahindra announced its sales results for February 2019. During the past month the company has noted positive growth in every segment such as PV, UV, CV and LCV segment below 3.5 tonnes. It was only in the LCV segment above 3.5 tonnes and in the MHCV segment that the company noted lower sales.
Cumulative sales in domestic markets surged 9 percent from 48,473 units sold in February 2018 to 52,915 units sold in the past month. Exports surged 16 percent from 2,654 units exported in February 2018 to 3,090 units exported last month. This took total domestic sales and exports up 10 percent to 56,005 units in February 2019 as compared to total sales of 51,127 units in the same month of the previous year.
Passenger car sales registered in Feb 2019 stood at 26,109 units as against 22,389 units sold in Feb 2018. This was a massive 17% growth, at a time when auto industry in general is suffering from low buyer sentiment. The push in sales was due to the launch of two new Mahindra cars. One is Marazzo, and the other is XUV300. Marazzo is an MPV, which registers an average sales of 3.7 k units a month. It is only offered with a diesel engine. Mahindra aims to sell about 6-8k units of XUV300 in India every month. XUV300 is offered with petrol and diesel engine option.
Apart from an increase in February 2019 sales, year to date sales have also been positive. Taking into account domestic sales in the period April 2018 to February 2019, domestic sales stood at 59,756 units, up 11 percent as compared to sales in domestic markets of 4,62,280 units in the same period a year ago. Exports also increased 40 percent from 24,797 units exported in the April 2018 to February 2018 period to 34,655 units in the same period in 2019. Total domestic sales and exports increased 12 percent from 4,87,077 units in 2018 to 5,45,644 units in 2019 period.
The same was not the case in the Farm Equipment sector. Domestic sales which stood at 19,442 units in February 2018 went down 7 percent to 18,105 units in February 2019 while exports also dipped 28 percent from 1,216 units exported in February 2018 to 873 units exported in the past month. This took total domestic sales and exports down 8 percent from 20,658 units in February 2018 to 18,978 units last month.
Positive growth in the tractor segment is expected in the months ahead especially with government benefits being directed at marginal farmers and other such initiatives offered by the Government of India.
