India: SUVs losing their lustre
SUVs have emerged as the darling of the Indian auto industry – sales have grown while the wider sector lags and the launch of new models has spurred interest.
But all the excitement around these oversized, road-hogging status symbols may be on pause for a while. In the month of April SUV sales actually fell in India. Continue reading »
India’s falling car sales: it’s the diesel
Without wanting to roll out all the driving puns, India’s auto industry is, well… stalling.
Until now, Indian car sales had been able to withstand slowdown in the wider economy. No longer. Continue reading »
Brics: risky businesses
What price a reputation? Earning a good one takes time. Losing it can take a moment. So some of the biggest companies based in Brazil, Russia, India and China may not be pleased to read a report issued this week by RepRisk, a consultancy that calls itself “the leading provider of business intelligence on environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks”. Continue reading »
Carmakers focus on India’s diesel subsidy
Major automakers are considering raising diesel engine production capacity in India to capitalise on exploding demand for the highly-subsidised fuel.
Toyota Motor and Maruti Suzuki, India’s biggest carmaker, have both said in the last week that they are mulling expansion plans. Ford and Volkswagen are also looking to boost diesel engine production capacity. Continue reading »
Maruti violence: ideology vs discontent
Auto workers’ deadly attack on managers and supervisors at a factory of India’s biggest car-maker Maruti Suzuki last week has created tremendous unease among Indian corporate executives.
The question that has vexed Indian corporate executives and many foreign investors since then is whether the trouble at Maruti can be seen as an isolated incident, reflecting difficulties unique to the Japanese-owned car plant, or whether it foreshadows something more ominous in a country where the gap between the haves and the have-nots is rapidly widening. Continue reading »
Maruti riot: awful but isolated?
The factory riot that has hit India’s largest carmaker, Maruti Suzuki, has seen the company’s share price take a battering. Down over 5 per cent on Monday trading, the company had already seen a fall of 8.9 per cent on Thursday.
The plant, which can produce 550,000 cars a year, has been shut since last Wednesday. But are the tragic events a sign of greater worker unrest, or an isolated problem? Continue reading »
Outlook unclear for India’s carmakers
After a strong February, March was another a good month for car sales in India, as buyers sought to beat an excise duty increase that came into effect at the start of the new fiscal year on Sunday.
But whether the recent rally will last is another matter. With the new excise duty now in place, the industry will be watching closely to see how the broader economy performs and what decision the Reserve Bank of India takes on interest rates later this month. Continue reading »
India car sales: better, but can it last?
Indian car sales seem to be picking up after a lackluster 2011, according to February sales data from the country’s biggest car makers.
But while some of the numbers are impressive – with individual company sales rising 80 per cent or more from a year earlier – analysts cautioned that a few more months were needed before the improvement could be called a comeback. Continue reading »
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Stefan Wagstyl
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