Car sales are likely to fall this financial year, industry body Siam (Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers) said on Wednesday. The fall in the country’s car sales would be the first in 10 years since 2002.

The society has hinted this notwithstanding revival in sales during past three months and an expected upswing in February and March this year due to improvement in consumer sentiment.

Last month, the Siam had predicted flat growth for the industry, revising it downwards for the third time this financial year.

“If we don’t see 10 to 12 per cent growth during February and March, which seems unlikely, we will miss our projection,” said Vishnu Mathur, director general Siam. The decline in industry growth has been attributed to high interest rates and fuel prices as well as strike at the market leader Maruti Suzuki’s Manesar plant that caused production loss of around 106,000 cars.

In 2010-11, the industry sold 2.52 million cars, a growth of 30 per cent.

Car sales in January grew 7 per cent at 196,013 units compared with 182,852 sold in the year ago period, buoyed by new diesel models. This was followed by a 9 per cent sales growth in December 2011 (159,325 cars) and 7 per cent growth in November 2011 (171,131 cars).

However, the single digit growth may not be enough to resurrect fall in car sales registered during the preceding months before November, said Siam.

Siam said, motorcycle sales grew 11 per cent to 825,887 units last month from 747,309 recorded in the year-ago period. Total two-wheeler sales in January 2012 grew by 14 per cent to 11.1 lakh units from 9.8 lakh units during January 2011. Total sales of commercial vehicles increased 14 per cent at 69,859 units from 61,537 units in year-ago period, Siam data showed. Exports across the categories grew 23 per cent at 236,190 units during January, compared with year-ago period in which 192,128 units were exported.

saahilanant

@mydigitalfc.com