India’s largest commercial vehicles maker Tata Motors expects to ship at least 15 per cent more trucks and buses this financial year as it hopes to export at least half of its banned BS-III inventory.
The company also expects domestic sale of commercial vehicles, led by LCVs and buses, to grow 10-15 per cent in fiscal 2018 aided by a favorable GST rate and the likely normal monsoons.
“We expect our exports to grow 15 per cent this year over last year when we grew over 11 per cent and for the first time crossed the 60,000-mark. This will be partly because we expect to ship at least 8,000 of the banned 15,000 BS-III trucks and buses to SAARC markets, primarily Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, where we already have a good presence, and also in West Asian and African markets," said Executive Director (Commercial Vehicles) Ravi Pisharody.
Following the March 28th Supreme Court ban on sale of BS-III vehicles, Tata Motors was left with around 15,000 trucks and buses while its dealers are sitting on stocks of around 3,000 units. Out of this, it expects to ship at least 8,000 units beginning this month to SAARC markets, where it already sells over 500 units each every month.