Mumbai, April 13: The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) on Monday released the data for sales in automobile sector for the month of March 2020. It stated that Indian automobile sector reported more than 18 percent on year drop in sales during FY 2020. The SIAM data also stated that production during the period fell 15 percent to 26,362,284 units. In totality, automobile sales for the month of March declined 45 percent, in YOY 2020.

According to the latest data, the passenger vehicle segment saw a decline in sales of 17.82 percent to 2,775,679 units on year-on-year (YOY) basis. For the commercial vehicle segment, the sales data is even worse as it recorded a decline of 28.75 percent to 717,688 units YoY, in FY 2020. Among other details, SIAM said that three-wheeler sales dropped by 9.19 percent from 636,569 units compared to 701,005 units and the two-wheeler sales were down by 17.76 percent to 17,417,616 units. Restaurants, Auto, Real Estate Sectors to Take 1-2 Years to Recover, Says FICCI Survey.

Commenting on the recent decline, SIAM president Rajan Wadhera said, as quoted by CNBC TV18, "The Industry was already reeling under severe degrowth and the pressure of disrupted supply chain, which was followed by a majority of the auto companies announcing a shutdown of their manufacturing units in the last week of March 2020, due to concerns over ensuring workplace safety & health of their employees. As per our estimates at SIAM, Auto industry is losing Rs 2,300 crore in production turnover for every day of closure."

Apart from the details, SIAM chief stated that sale of passenger vehicles and commercial vehicles fell by 51 percent and 88 percent respectively in March, YOY. Even for the three and two wheeler segment, the March sales (YOY 2020) declined by 58 and 40 percent respectively.

Wadhera claimed, "The month of March 2020 was one of the most challenging months for the Auto sector as the 21-day lockdown resulted in bringing the production and sales of vehicles to a standstill in the last week. As the revenues took severe hit, the OEMs struggled on meeting fixed cost and working capital requirements."

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 13, 2020 03:27 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).