Ashok Leyland, commercial vehicle major will continue to provide thrust to its core business of commercial vehicles and build a portfolio of profitable segments. The company performed really well during the last year and was achieved when the overall industry sales volume was static while demonetization and implementations of BS-IV emission norms had dampening effects on the sales growth volume.
In the medium and heavy duty segment, vehicles register a growth of 4% with the market share of 33.8% while the truck segment posted 33.1% which is a record. Besides the bus segment, there was a declination in the market share which will be overcome shortly.
The company will sharpen its light commercial vehicles (LCV) strategy while a slew of products are already in the pipeline. LCV market grew by 7.4% with sale of 31,770 vehicles.
Apart, the performance of Ashok Leyland in the international market has been modest. International business is the important lever of growth for the company.
Ashok Leyland’s chairman, Dheeraj G Hinduja said “I am confident more than ever before that we are on track to consolidate our market gains in India sustainably and emerge as a beacon of market relevant technologies in the commercial vehicle field”.
The company also has plans to introduce new models in the LCV segment and will focus on improving the network on cost effective basis particularly in North, Central and Eastern regions.
Leyland has attracted a sum of ₹647 crore in 2016-17 after studying its intrinsic value of investments in Joint Ventures. This includes provision of ₹121 crore towards Albonair GmbH and Albonair India, in addition, ₹526 crores has been provided towards Optare Plc. for the loans and obligation.
Company’s 7123 BS III vehicles were identified for conversion, after the Supreme Court order banning sales of the vehicles with this emission standards. Out of 9572 BS III vehicles identified for disposal, 2449 vehicles has been earmarked for export markets and remaining has been identified for conversion from BS III to BS IV. Hence out of total inventory of 12319 vehicles, only 7123 vehicles attracted conversion.