Hero MotoCorp (HMCL) reported a 2.4% increase in its motorcycle shipments in March, well below the growth seen in the full year.
Hero, which split from its joint venture partner Honda last year, sold 5.28 lakh vehicles in March, up from 5.16 lakh in March 2011.
In comparison, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI) saw 50% rise in its total March sales at 2.20 lakh units and Yamaha Motor India saw a 13.9% rise in units in March.
Honda competes with Bajaj Auto as it tries to wrestle the second spot from the Pune based company.
Meanwhile, Suzuki Motorcycles India also reported a 28.50% growth in March sales at 35,158 units.
For the full year, Hero saw motorcycle shipments rise 15.4% to 62.4 lakh units. Honda India saw an increase of 27.2% in full year sales to 21.1 lakh units.
Honda is set to launch a new 100-cc class bike to target the biggest segment in the Indian motorcycle market. The Honda Yuga is expected to help the company rapidly increase its volumes.
Meanwhile, Hero Motors said its plans for export and expansion of production remained on track.
“As we begin a new Financial Year (2012-13), the geographical boundary of our business is set to expand beyond our existing markets. We are set to leverage emerging opportunities in global markets such as in Africa and Latin/Central America by commencing exports to some of these new markets in the coming months,” Pawan Munjal, Hero Corp’s CEO said.
“While we are further augmenting capacity at our existing plants to seven million units, we will also be announcing new plants,” he added.
It will also launch an all-new 110cc Passion X Pro and a new 125cc bike, Ignitor – over the next few months.
