Car sales zoom to new high, signal strong festival show

Uptick in production on better chip supply, high demand for SUVs helped

- DEEPAK PATEL

The Indian auto mobile industry posted its highest monthly ever domestic passenger vehicle (PV) sales at 360,897 units in August, up 10.4 per cent yearon-year (Y-o-Y). This came ahead of festival season and on the back of growth in the overall economy, an uptick in production due to a better chip supply, and high demand for SUVs.

The GST collection last month, too, witnessed high growth of 11 per cent Y-o-Y to over 1.59 trillion; it, however, was less than the 1.65 trillion mop-up in July due to muted growth in the collection of integrated GST (IGST) and cess on imports.

Manufacturing activities in the country also gained momentum in August as new orders and output increased.

The S&P Global India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) rose to 58.6 in August, against 57.7 in July. The August figure, the highest in three months, marked 26 months of the index remaining above the 50 mark, separating expansion from contraction.

On the other hand, around 19.16 million households sought work under the rural job guarantee scheme last month, up 20 per cent Y-o-Y, which experts and activists attributed to a prolonged monsoon break. This exacerbated existing weakness in the rural job market.

The Indian automobile industry in August topped its previous domestic PV sales high of 355,400 units, achieved in September 2022.

Shashank Srivastava, senior executive officer (marketing and sales at Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL), told reporters that the festival season has started with Onam and there has been retail sales growth of 25 per cent in Kerala. "That is a very good.

number. The demand parameters such as bookings and inquiries have been pretty high," he further said.