Slowdown blues: Tata Motors domestic sales drop 26% to 40,155 units in May; weak market sentiment weighs

Auto major Tata Motors on Saturday reported 26 per cent decline in domestic sales to 40,155 units in May "as market sentiments continued to be muted".

"The country's leading automobile company had sold 54,290 units during the same month last year, Tata Motors said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The cumulative domestic sales for April-May were down 23 per cent at 82,684 units compared to 107,758 units over last year.

Tata Motors commercial vehicles (CV) business sales in the domestic market stood at 29,329 units in May as compared to 36,806 units sold in the same month last year. "The market sentiments remain weak due to depressed freight rates and underutilization of truck(s). Slowing economy and stagnant industrial output have also dragged down CV sales in recent months," the company said.

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The M&HCV sales reported a decline of 38 per cent at 7,683 units, compared to 12,424 units sold in May 2018, while the I&LCV truck sales were down 2 per cent at 4,043 units versus 4,106 units in the year ago period.

Meanwhile, passenger vehicles (PV) domestic wholesales dropped by 38 per cent to 10,900 units as compared with 17,489 units sold in May 2018, due to higher vehicle stocks in network the PV business strategy was to focus on retails.

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In May 2019, PV retail sales have recorded a growth of 11 per cent over May 18, on the back of exciting product line-up and micro segmenting strategy.

"The company's sales from exports (CV and PV) in May 2019 were at 1,563 units, lower by 58% over last May. Several factors like drop in retails in Bangladeshand Nepal, high stocksin SAARCregionand slump in Middle East have affected the overall industry volumes in these markets," Tata Motor said.

Edited by Chitranjan Kumar