Small Car Exports Jump 5% in 2010 .

The small car exports from India saw a marginal rise of five per cent during the calendar year 2010 at a total export volume of little over four lakh units. Though the withdrawal of scrappage incentive scheme in European market impacted car exports, increased exports of Maruti coupled with entry of new players into the small car exports club aided the small rise in export volumes.

The total small car exports (both A1 and A2 segments put together) increased to 407,327 units for 2010, when compared with 387,236 units in 2009, says statistics of Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers.

India’s largest small car exporter Hyundai saw a decline of about 11 per cent at 224,683 units in 2010, when compared with 253,414 units 2009, while Maruti Suzuki India increased its small car exports by about nine per cent to 146,462 units when compared with 134,414 units. Though domestic sales of small cars witnessed phenomenal growth, withdrawal of scrappage incentive plan in European market was seen as a challenge for car exporters such as Hyundai and Maruti to sustain growth. Both Hyundai and Maruti together accounted for 91 per cent of small car exports in 2010.

“For Maruti, the recent launch of its compact car A-Star in non-European markets, has diluted the impact of decline in exports to European markets. Non-European markets accounted for 60 per cent of exports in December 2010 volume, when compared with 20 per cent share in December 2009,” pointed out a report of Motilal Oswal Securities. But for the fiscal year 2010-11, the export contribution to total volumes of Maruti is expected to fall to 12 per cent from 15 per cent in 2009-10.

While Hyundai’s exports dipped by 29,000 units, when compared with 2009 volume, the year gone by also saw the entry of firms like Nissan and Ford into ‘small car exporters club.’ Nissan, which started shipping its compact car Micra overseas from October, exported 21,283 units at the end of 2010, thereby becoming third biggest player in small car exports, though there’s a wide gap between Nissan, Hyundai and Maruti.

Source : mydigitalfc.com