Auto sales for November down

Economic slowdown seems to have taken a toll on the Auto sector as well. Auto companies today reported their monthly sales figure, with all the top auto makers reporting disappointing set of figures.

India's leading car maker Maruti Suzuki sales declined 24.3 per cent in November this year compared to sales in the same month last year.The company sold 52,711 vehicles in November this year as compared to 69,699 in the like period a year ago.

Company's volumes in the domestic sedan segment, called the A3 segment, which comprises SX4, Esteem and Swift D'zire models, grew by 40.3 per cent from 4,260 cars in November last year to 5,975 this year.

The sales in the high-end small car segment, called the A2 segment, comprising Alto, Wagon-R, Zen, Swift, and A-Star models declined 26.6 percent from 47,641 in 2007 to 34,976 this year.

Tractor major Mahindra and Mahindra too announced that it will it could cut down productions and temporarily shut plants due to slowdown in sales in domestic as well as overseas markets.

The economic turmoil has cast its spell on country's oldest automobile company Hindustan Motors too, with sales of Ambassador cars dipping by more than 33 per cent in the past few months.A company official told reporters that Amby sales which were in the region of 900 cars per month have come down to 600 units now.

HM mulling components business.

Hindustan Motors is moving ahead to become more of an automobile component manufacturer than developer of new models."The key to our revival will be our components business comprising forgings, castings and stampings produced at our Uttarpara factory near Kolkata," company Chairman C.K. Birla said.

As long as the Ambassador remained the car of choice for all Indian government purchases, whether at the federal or the state level, the company managed to stay in the green even as other manufacturers aggressively attacked the rapidly growing Indian automobiles market.

Hindustan Motors refused to move away from the Ambassador. But when government orders began drying up in 2004, the company, once India's largest carmaker, was hit hard; it has been ailing ever since.

Read more in The Economic Times article.