NEW DELHI, APRIL 28: The automobile industry suffered a setback due to economic slowdown with car sales falling by about two per cent during 1998-99 at 409,966 units and exports suffering a decline of about 14 per cent at 25,464 units despite several new entrants.The two-wheeler segment beat the negative growth trend with Bajaj Auto, LML Ltd and Hero Honda recording impressive performances to contribute to about 12 per cent growth at 340,427 units.Market leader in car segment - Maruti Udyog Ltd - along with other key players including General Motors, Hindustan Motors, Mercedes, Premier Automobiles suffered sales setback that forced them to cut down production, according to data released by Association of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (AIAM) here today.In commercial vehicle segment also, overall sales came down by about 12 per cent to 139,565 in 1998-99 from 157,898 in the previous year, with both TELCO and Ashok Leyland pruning down their production drastically.Displaying identical trendsthree-wheeler segment also registered a 10 per cent fall in sales at 210,220 and over 11 per cent cut in production by all the manufacturers except Bajaj Tempo Ltd which posted a hefty growth in sales and production.With the entry of new players and introduction of newer models, market share of Maruti Udyog Ltd (MUL) declined to 79.65 per cent in 1998-99 from 82.66 per cent in the previous year as its sales also dropped by over 5 per cent to 326,523, the data revealed. But MUL's production came down by only about 4 per cent at 330,395, though the company recorded an improved production and sales performance during the last month of fiscal 1998-99.Indian subsidiary of Korean giant Daewoo, however, withstood the market pressures and recorded a marginal increase in sales from 10,108 to 10,221. Production figures of Daewoo Motors (India) Ltd for the year were not available.The multi-utility vehicle segment was also a major looser of the downcast market as total sales dropped by 16.8 per cent at 111,710with market leader Mahindra and Mahindra along with TELCO, Bajaj Tempo and MUL suffering the brunt of it. TELCO, which introduced Indica late last year, however, showed a marginal increase in car sales from 4,669 to 4,750, the AIAM said.Overall exports of multi-utility vehicles also fell to 2,674 from 3,288, registering a near 20 per cent fall. Despite an encouraging domestic performance, two-wheeler segment also became a victim of international slowdown with exports declining by over 20 per cent to 100,002, of which motorcycles and mopeds accounted for nearly 72 per cent share.In the two-wheelers segment Bajaj Auto bettered its performance with its scooters and motorcycle sales increasing by 2.3 per cent and 21.5 per cent respectively. However, the company's moped sales dipped by seven per cent. Total scooter exports by the industry fell five per cent even as export leader LML shipped 11,026 units compared to 10,441 in 1997-98.The motorcycles segment saw all the players reporting higher sales.Market leader Hero Honda increased its sales by 30.19 per cent at 5,30,607 units, although its exports fell by 38.18 per cent. Total sales grew by 23.37 per cent in this segment at 13,956,57 as production of motorcycles increased at a similar rate.Moped leader TVS-Suzuki Ltd's market share increased from 45 per cent to almost 50 per cent during the year as it increased its sales by 14.05 per cent at 3,33,895 units. Kinetic Engineering followed the trend with an increase of 5.7 per cent with exports nearly doubling at 9,563 from 5,235.Except for TVS-Suzuki which saw production increasing by 13.56 per cent all other players witnessed a fall in production. In the commercial vehicles sgement, both the medium and heavy as well as light categories, TELCO maintained its leadership at 53,684 and 38,789 respectively.In the commercial vehicles segment, both in medium and heavy (M and H) as well as light commercial vehicles (LCV) TELCO maintained its leadership in 1998-99 at 53,684 and 38,789 respectively.However, its sales performance worsened as offtake of M and H fell by 15.32 per cent. Production of commercial vehicles also dropped by similar proportion.TELCO's sales of LCVs also decreased by nearly nine per cent from an earlier high of 42,500 units although sales in the month of March showed rise in offtake. Following TELCO, Chennai-based Ashok Leyland's sales of M and H as well as light vehicles also fell substantially.The Hinduja group company sold 567 light vehicles in 1998-99 as against 1,310 in 1997-98, almost a 50 per cent drop in sales. Total exports of commercial vehicles fell by about 40 per cent to 10,108 from 14,084 in 1997-98. The M and H unit exports stood at 4,544 down from 5,872 units sent in 1997-98 per cent and the light units shipments fell more sharply to 5,564 from 8,212 in 1997-98.
