October car sales registers sharpest fall in over 10 years

NEW DELHI: Country's car sales in the month of October has registered the sharpest monthly fall in over 10 years. The sector was tanked by 23.77 per cent due to the huge output drop posted by the country’s largest car-maker Maruti Suzuki on the caused labour trouble, along with high interest rates and fuel prices.

As per the figures of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), the domestic passenger car sales was at 1,38,521 units in October as against 1,81,704 units in the like month previous year.

Since July, the sales decline in October is the fourth successive decline on a year-on-year basis mainly impacted by the labour issues on Maruti Suzuki India’s production.

Mr Vishnu Mathur, SIAM Director-General, said, “This is the steepest decline since December 2000, when car sales in the country dropped 39.86 per cent. The reason for the fall is mainly due to the high interest rates and high fuel prices and also a big drop (in output) by Maruti Suzuki.”

However, the automotive industry was expecting a positive sales growth in October on the festive season.

The sales of Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) in the month of October, falls by 55.11 per cent to 41,192 units from 91,754 units in the corresponding month previous year. Another automobile major Hyundai Motor has registered a decline of 5.31 per cent in October sales to 32,811 units from 34,651 units in the same period last year.