From Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers convention

Siam sees auto sales touching 5.6 million units by 2017
The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam) on Wednesday said the domestic passenger vehicles market is likely to touch 5.6 million units by 2017 despite a slowdown in recent months. “The growth figure that we are now working out for the 12th Five-Year plan indicates that we may see domestic passenger vehicle sales of 5.6 million units and the export of 1.3 million units by the end of 2017,” Siam president Pawan Goenka said at the annual convention of the industry body. Vehicle manufacturers as well as component players need to plan their investment and capacity expansion strategy to meet this demand, he said. He, however, said due to the slowdown in recent months, the industry “may have to revise the growth projection for passenger vehicles and commercial vehicles further”. Siam said it may further lower its growth projection for vehicle sales in the country from the earlier estimate of 11-13% announced two months back.

Tata Motors alters production
Tata Motors has altered production of some of its models, cutting or raising them as per market demand, managing director India operations Prakash M Telang said. “In terms of correction of production that (cutting production) will always keep happening,” Telang said. “If we find that the market has moved slowly, a correction is required. It happens with CV (commercial vehicles) also,” he said. As the company has a wide range of models across categories, it has increased output of some of its models, while cut production for some others as per market demand, he said. Asked whether the company is planning to raise prices of its products due to high input costs, Telang said, “(it is) difficult to say. Yes there are cost pressure happening from all sides but the price correction will always depend on the market place, how the competition is reacting, how is the overall market moving.” It is not always possible to take a price correction, he said. Last few months have been challenging for the auto industry due to the rise in interest rates and high fuel costs, he said. However, with a good monsoon season so far, demand should pick up soon, he said.

TVS to ramp up three-wheeler output
TVS Motor Co said it will ramp up three-wheeler production capacity by 2,000 units per month by the end of April 2012. "Currently we are producing 6,000 units of three wheelers every month. We are increasing it to 8,000 units a month by April next year," TVS Motor president (marketing) H S Goindi said. In August, the company had sold 4,714 units of three- wheelers as against 3,626 units in the comparable month of the previous year, a growth of 30%. Besides, the firm's total two-wheeler sales grew by 14% to 190,184 units last month in comparison to 167,109 units recorded in August 2010.

Honda to launch 100cc bike next year
Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Pvt Ltd will launch a new 100cc motorcycle and a scooter model early next year, N K Rattan, vice-president, sales and marketing, said. “Early next year, we will launch a motorcycle in the mass segment,” Rattan said. He said the company wanted to exploit opportunity that the mass entry-level segment provided. “The new bike could be priced between `40,000 and `45,000, ex-Delhi,” Rattan said. The company already sells the Twister 110cc motorcycle at `45,000-50,000, ex-Delhi. Rattan said the company also planned to launch a new scooter model in the January-March quarter. The company aimed to sell 2.1 million vehicles this fiscal, up from 1.66 million sold in 2010-11, he said. “We also aim to increase our capacity to 4 mln vehicles per year June 2013,” he said. The company currently has a production capacity of 2.2 million vehicles per year. Honda Motorcycle currently operates two manufacturing plants in Haryana and Rajasthan, and is setting up a third in Karnataka. Asked whether the company planned to revise prices of its models, Rattan said it would review them in October. “We had raised prices in April and July. We will review again in October,” he said.

Toyota may raise prices 2%
Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt Ltd plans to hike prices of select models by up to 2% from October 1 due to high input costs and currency fluctuations. “We will do it (revise prices) from October 1,” Sandeep Singh, deputy managing director, sales and marketing, said at the annual convention of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers. However, prices of diesel variants of Liva and Etios models, to be launched September 9, would not be raised, Singh said. The company is also raising capacity of its Bangalore plant-I to 90,000 units per year by October-end from 80,000 units now. “We are also raising capacity at our second plant (also at Bangalore) to 110,000 units per year, which would be achieved by September next year,” he said. The company currently manufactures 500 vehicles from its two Bangalore units on a daily basis.

JLR to increase manufacturing in India
Tata Group-owned luxury car maker Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is looking at increasing manufacturing of its vehicles in India in order to avoid high import duty on its products. JLR executive director Mike Wright said vehicles imported from the UK to India attract very high custom duty (about 110%), so the company may look at producing more vehicles locally. “We are looking at the opportunity to introduce more locally produced models in India,” Wright said when asked if JLR would assemble other models apart from ‘Freelander’ in India.

GM India to review prices
General Motors Co’s India unit will review its prices this month, a senior executive said on Wednesday, joining the ranks of several automakers mulling a price increase in India to offset rising costs of raw materials, Karl Slym, president of GM India, said. Demand for cars in India is expected to slow more than predicted during this fiscal, an industry body said on Wednesday, as rising interest rates and vehicle costs prompt a pull-back in spending in the world’s second-fastest growing auto market after China.

Bajaj Auto gets Rs800 crore VAT refund
Two-wheeler major Bajaj Auto Ltd has received Rs800 crore as value added tax refund from the Maharashtra government and hopes to receive the balance Rs300 crore, chairman Rahul Bajaj said. The company had sought Rs1,100 crore from the state government as value added tax refunds. “We have received Rs800 crore on the amount due to us,” he said. The state government’s budget for 2011-12 had changed the value added tax refund rules for companies, which could affect automobile companies in the state. According to the new notification, automobile manufacturers would receive tax incentives on vehicles sold only in Maharashtra. Earlier the Maharashtra government used to reimburse the entire value of added tax paid by automobile companies to their vendors in the state, irrespective of where the vehicle was sold.

Volvo aims to sell 800 buses this year
Volvo Buses India Pvt Ltd aims to sell 700-800 buses in the year ending December. The company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sweden’s Volvo Bus Corp, had sold 560 buses last year, managing director and chief executive officer Akash Passey said.

“In the current year, we expect to have volume growth of 35%,” he said on the sidelines of the annual convention of industry body Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers. The company aims to close the year with revenues of Rs700-800 crore compared with around Rs500 crore in the previous year. Regarding new launches, he said, “We usually launch 1 to 2 models every year. So next year shouldn’t be any different,” he said. Passey said the company had no plans to launch any new models this year.