Tata Motors October sales hit by fire damage

Rex Mathew
06 November 2006

The fire incident at its paint shop in Pune has pulled down the sales volume growth of Tata Motors for the month of October 2006. The company has reported a modest sales volume growth of 5.6 per cent for the month — substantially lower than the earlier months of current financial year. Total sales for the month of October 2006 were 43,540 units, including exports, as compared to 41,219 units during October 2005.

On a month-on-month basis, sales volumes have declined 11.43 per cent from 49,157 units reported for September 2006. For the April-October 2006 period, Tata Motors has sold a total of 309,599 units — a growth of 31 per cent over the same period of previous year.

Production disruption at the paint shop affected passenger car sales, which declined 2.8 per cent to 16,726 units for the month. Sequentially, passenger car sales declined 10.12 per cent from 18,609 units for September 2006.

Sales of popular hatchback model Indica increased 9.1 per cent from the same month of last year to 10,998 units. Sequentially, Indica sales increased 2.84 per cent from 10,694 units for the previous month.

Sales of vehicles in the Indigo family slumped 51.3 per cent year-on-year to 1,722 units for the month. On a sequential basis, sales in this segment have gone down 51.74 per cent over 3,568 units sold during September 2006. Sales of Indigo sedan and Indigo Marina station wagon had increased substantially in the pervious month after the company launched updated versions last month. Tata Motors said it was unable to meet the demand because of production disruptions.