Bajaj Auto Clocks Highest Sales Growth In Seven Years

Bajaj Auto Ltd. clocked its highest sales growth in seven years and fifth straight increase for the month of December, driven by a healthy pick up in exports.

The two- and three-wheeler maker sold 2.92 lakh units last month, an increase of 30 percent from the year-ago period, the Pune-based company said today. Prior to this, the company clocked sales growth of 32.2 percent year-on-year in October 2010.

Overall motorcycles sales rose 13 percent year-on-year to 2.28 lakh units. Motorcycle sales in the domestic market rose 6 percent.

Commercial Vehicles: Highest-Ever Sales

Bajaj Auto's commercial vehicle segment clocked its highest-ever sales during the previous month. Sales rose 187 percent year-on-year to 63,785 units.

• Domestic sales jumped 180 percent to 36,579 units.
• Exports jumped 197 percent to 27,206 units.

Overall Exports Outperform

Bajaj Auto's exports outpaced domestic sales on an overall basis, led by the firmness in oil and commodity prices, Ravikumar told BloombergQuint in an interview.

The automaker exported 1.43 lakh vehicles last month, an increase of 35 percent from the corresponding month in 2016. That compares with the local market sales growth of 25 percent.

The company exported 1.15 lakh motorcycles in December, an increase of 20 percent from the sales closed in December 2016.

Ravikumar expects to export about 1.5 lakh units per month going forward.

Shares of the automaker rose as much as 1.8 percent to Rs 3,348 apiece on the bourses in early trade. This compared to 0.1 percent advance in the S&P BSE Auto Index.