MOST INDICATORS ARE IN GREEN

In an Industry Talk session, Vinod Aggarwal, President, SIAM and Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer at VE Commercial Vehicles Ltd. spoke to Ashish Bhatia on most indicators being in green barring the developed economies posing a challenge.

- Ashish Bhatia

Q. How were the FY23 sales and production volumes for VECV and from a Total Industry Volume (TIV) standpoint?

A. The fiscal year FY23 proved to be a fruitful one for the entire CV industry, including VECV. We broke all our earlier records by surpassing our earlier peak levels of 2018-19. In FY23, we sold 79,623 vehicles as compared to 57,077 units last year in FY22, marking a growth of 39.5 per cent which beat industry growth. This has been possible on the back of our continuous focus on uptime for our customer.

Talking about the industry, the TIV for FY23 stood at 4,74,177 units marking a growth of 38.1 per cent as compared to FY22. The growth was due to the improvement in freight movement across the country and the healthy infrastructure spend by the government. While the growth figure looks positive, it is still away from the peak of 2018-19 when the TIV stood at 557,517 units indicating a huge room for additional growth in coming years. With all the positives in place, we hope to see the CV industry reach its peak level of 2018-19 very soon.

Q. Which segment outperformed and is likely to take the momentum into the next fiscal year?

A. The Heavy Duty (HD) truck industry has grown strongly by 50.5 per cent due to the government focus on infrastructure development as well as the overall economic growth. In addition to this, the Light and Medium Duty (LMD) segment has also witnessed a growth of 46.2 per cent due to the growing demand for intra-city and last-mile transportation.

Similarly, demand for buses, most severely impacted by the pandemic, is now almost back to pre-Covid-19 levels with the re-opening of schools and intercity travel taking off, registering a growth of 258.8 per cent in the segment this year.