Higher cost, supply side constraints dent Feb auto sales

New Delhi: Higher costs, along with supply side constraints, impacted India’s domestic auto sector sales in February 2022 on a year-on-year basis.
The sector’s February off-take of passenger cars, two-and-three wheelers were lower on a YoY basis.
In terms of PVs, challenges pertaining to electronic components’ availability lowered production and pulled sales down. The shortage has extended waiting periods and escalated prices.
The industry was only able to produce 170,428 units of passenger cars in February 2022 from 181,247 units made in the corresponding period of the previous year.
The data furnished by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) does not include figures from some key players such as Tata Motors.
Sales of passenger vehicles fell to 262,984 units in February as compared to 281,380 units sold during the corresponding month of 2021. Segment-wise, a total of 133,572 passenger cars were sold in the domestic market in February, down from 155,128 units sold in the like period of 2021.
As per the data, UV sales stood at 120,122 units from 114,350 units, on the other hand, the off-take of vans declined to 9,290 units from 11,902 units in the year-ago period.
Besides, two-wheelers’ sales were lower in Feburary 2022 at 1,037,994 units from 1,426,865 units sold in the same month of 2021. Furthermore, three-wheelers’ sales during the month under review slipped to 27,039 units from 27,656 units sold during February 2022.
Overall, the domestic automobile sectors’ off-take representing the sales of passenger vehicles, two-wheelers, three-wheelers and quadricycle fell to 1,328,027 units from 1,735,909 units sold during the same period of last year.
In addition, the data showed that exports were higher on a YoY basis. The overall exports, including PVs, two and three-wheelers and quadricycles rose to 463,025 units from 441,797 units during the same period of last year.
“Continuing supply side challenges like Semiconductor shortages, increase in cost due to new regulations, higher commodity prices, higher logistics cost etc. have impacted overall sales in the auto industry,” said Rajesh Menon, Director General, SIAM.
“Industry is closely watching the possible impact of the on-going conflict in Ukraine, as global supply chains could come under stress.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Kashmir Monitor staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)