Tractors Clock Highest Retail Sales In 19 Months In July 2020

Vehicle registrations—a measure of sales at dealerships—for tractors rose 35% year-on-year and 67% over the preceding month to 74,319 units in July 2020, according to data of 1,225 regional transport offices in 32 states and union territories collated by BloombergQuint from the website of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.

That compares with a 36.9% year-on-year drop and a 16% rise over June in overall vehicle registrations to 11.34 lakh units in the reported month.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration will spend about Rs 1.5 lakh crore, as part of its Rs 20-lakh-crore ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ Covid-19 pandemic rescue package, to help farmers and fishermen boost exports and profits as the nation gradually reopens after the world’s biggest lockdown. While the economy heads toward a rare annual contraction in more than four decades, the government sees rural India as the lone bright spot.

Even the factory-gate shipments of India’s tractor industry outshined other vehicle segments over the year-ago period, corroborated by BloombergQuint’s compilation of estimates of four brokerages in July.

Two-Wheelers And Passenger Cars

Demand for two-wheeler and passenger car makers, among others, witnessed a recovery over June but fell year-on-year. That, too, is skewed in favour of semi-urban and rural markets as many urban and metros are still grappling with stricter curbs. While commercial vehicles saw some demand, that of school and commercial buses remained muted.

The automakers tracked by BloombergQuint account for 95.5% of the overall vehicle registrations. These companies saw their retail sales rise 15% over the preceding month but fell 37% over the year ago in July.

Here’s a look at auto sales in each segment in July 2020:

Tractors

Retail sales of tractors remained firm during the month. All companies tracked by BloombergQuint witnessed a rise.

Two-Wheelers

Two-wheeler makers pushed stock to dealerships after lockdown restrictions eased. As many as 8.67 lakh two-wheelers were sold in July compared with 7.79 lakh units in the previous month. But motorycles and scooter registrations remained 37.6% lower than the year-ago period.

Passenger Cars

Vehicle registrations in India’s passenger car industry rose 24.4% month-on-month but fell 22% over the year ago in July. Car sales stood at 1.5 lakh units in the reported month compared with a peak of 2.64 lakh units in January this year.

Among the passenger car makers tracked by BloombergQuint, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. continued to witness a sharp recovery. Retail sales of India’s top 11 carmakers tracked by BloombergQuint rose 28.6% over June but fell 35.1% year-on-year.

Commercial Vehicles

Commercial vehicles continued to witness a slow pickup in sales as fleet remained under-utilised across the country. Overall registrations of goods carrier nearly doubled over June but are 70% lower than July last year.