Strong overseas demand for HD trucks sees Tata Motors nearly double its exports

The Indian commercial vehicle industry is on a roll, what with having notched nearly 42 percent year-on-year growth in the first five months of FY2019 in the domestic market.  What’s more, the industry is repeating the performance on the export front. With total shipments of 42,285 units in April-August 2018, it has recorded YoY growth of 35.64 percent. 

CV market leader Tata Motors, which has embarked on an aggressive growth strategy to reclaim lost market share, is not only making gains there (45%) but is also putting up a strong export performance. The company, which ships its trucks and buses to SAARC, Middle East, South East Asia and Africa, is currently witnessing considerable demand for its trucks and buses.

For the first five months of the ongoing fiscal (April-August 2018), Tata Motors has shipped a total of 21,521 units, registering YoY growth of 39 percent. Mahindra Trucks & Buses, the No. 2 CV exporter, has exported 9,478 units (+70 percent), while Ashok Leyland and VE Commercial Vehicles have exported 5,761 and 3,838 units respectively. While Ashok Leyland’s exports are down by 10.15 percent, VECV has gained 33 percent.

Overall, the Indian CV industry has shipped a total of 20,398 units of M&HCVs during April-August 2018; the truck segment is up 68 percent but bus exports have declined by 33 percent.

During the same period, Tata Motors’ bus exports have fallen by 19 percent from 1,744 units to 1,410 units; However, what has helped is the growing overseas demand for its heavy-duty trucks – shipments have grown 92 percent YoY  to 10,552 units as compared to 5,475 units in April-August 2017. Besides the traditional SAARC markets like Bangladesh and Nepal, demand from key South and East African markets have made the difference, with the bulk of the demand driven by the 12T, 16T and 25T segments.

Speaking on the company’s impressive performance, Rudrarup Maitra, Head (International Business), Commercial Vehicles, Tata Motors, said: “Tata Motors’ exports of commercial vehicles have seen a strong growth of 40 percent over last year in FY2019. The M&HCV segment has played a leading role in driving the overall growth of exports in the current fiscal year. The markets which have contributed to the increase in demand of M&HCV trucks are Bangladesh, Nepal and key markets in South and East Africa. The investments in infrastructure have led to the surge in demand in Bangladesh. The M&HCV segment in Nepal has witnessed a marginal increase in volume after TIV contraction in the last year due to the liquidity crunch. Most of the markets in South and East Africa have also seen marginal correction in demand after contracting over the previous few years.”

Tata Motors is bullish on the increasing demand for its trucks in the overseas markets and expects this high growth to continue for the whole year. “We expect this positive trend in demand to continue in Q3 FY2018-19. With the newly launched products in the Signa and Prima range of trucks, we are well placed to cater to the growing demand across these markets and their various segments,” says Maitra.

During April-August 2018, the industry shipped a total of 42,285 units, which marks YoY growth of 35 percent. These numbers comprise 20,398 M&HCVs and 21,887 LCVs with both segments recording strong 30 percent YoY growth.

FY2018 saw total CV domestic sales hit an all-time high of 856,453 units (+19.94 percent) but exports were sluggish at 96,867 units, declining by 10.53 percent compared to 108,271 units in FY2017. However, if the industry’s export performance in the first five months of FY2019 is anything to go by, then strong double-digit growth should be there for the asking.