Restocking, base effect boost two-wheeler sales in March

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SME Times News Bureu | 02 Apr, 2021
Restocking prior to the upcoming wedding season, along with the base effect and low interest rates, accelerated the year-on-year sales momentum of major two-wheeler players during March.

Besides, preference for personal mobility due to the pandemic as well as healthy rural consumption led OEMs to post healthy sequential growth numbers in March.

Two-wheeler major Hero MotoCorp sold 576,957 units of motorcycles and scooters in March 2021, registering a growth of 72 per cent over 334,647 units sold in the corresponding month in the previous year.

Similarly, the other two-wheeler giant Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India's total sales rose to 411,037 units last month from 263,360 units sold in March 2020.

The company's domestic sales in March grew from 245,716 units last year to 395,037 units.

Overall, Honda closed FY2020-21 (April'20-March'21) with total sales of 4,073,182 two-wheelers. This includes domestic sales of 3,865,872 units and exports of 207,310 units.

Likewise, two-wheeler and commercial vehicle manufacturer Bajaj Auto's sales rose last month.

The company reported a 52 per cent growth in total sales to 369,448 units from 242,575 units sold during the corresponding month of 2020.

In terms of two-wheelers, the company's total sales rose by 56 per cent to 330,133 units from 210,976 units sold in January last year.

Another two-and-three wheeler major, TVS Motor Company registered sales of 322,683 units in March 2021 as against 144,739 units in March 2020.

The company's total two-wheelers grew by 130 per cent registering sales of 307,437 units in March 2021 as against 133,988 units in March 2020.

Furthermore, Suzuki Motorcycle India recorded 69,942 unit sales in March 2021.

The company sold 60,222 units in the domestic market and exported 9,720 units in March 2021.

Additionally, Royal Enfield posted a sale of 66,058 motorcycles in the month of March, against the sales of 35,814 motorcycles for the same month last year.

"Base effect along with restocking prior to the upcoming wedding season has led to sequential as well as year on year growth in domestic sales of the two-wheeler segment," said Rohan Gupta, AVP and sector head, ICRA.

Suman Chowdhury, Chief Analytical Officer, Acuite Ratings & Research, said: "The two wheeler sales for March 2021 continued to remain on a healthy track on the back of a particularly low base given the onset of Covid lockdown and BS VI transition challenges in the previous year (March 2020)."

"Acuite believes that the near term outlook in the two-wheeler segment will remain positive on account of continuing traction in rural demand with expected record Rabi output, need for personal mobility during the pandemic period and largely steady export demand to countries in Latin America and Middle East."