02 July 2010;dailypioneer.com:New Delhi:Continuing the growth momentum, the auto sales in June rose over double digits as against the same month last year with major companies. The growth driving auto majors were Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Tata Motors. The country’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki said its domestic sales grew 17.87 per cent during the month at 72,812 units from 61,773 units last June. The company’s total sales in June was at at 88,091 units, up 17.28 per cent from the same month last year. Likewise, Hyundai India also said its domestic sales registered a growth of 18.90 per cent at 27,366 units, as against 23,016 units in the same month last year. Its total sales, however, declined 2.14 per cent at 46,254 units last month as against 47,266 units in the year-ago period as exports witnessed a decline of 22.11 percent to 18,888 from 24,250 units. Homegrown major Tata Motors also reported a jump of 63.22 per cent in its total passenger vehicles sales in the domestic market at 27,811 units as against 17,039 units. Riding on its newly launched small car Figo, Ford India reported an over three-fold jump in its June sales at 7,269 units as against 1,982 units last June. The good growth was also reflected in the sales of Mahindra & Mahindra, which reported a 16.50 per cent jump to 26,243 units from 22,526 units in the same month in 2009. General Motors India saw its sales climbing over two-fold to 9,539 units last month compared to 4,492 units in the year-ago month, mainly on account of good performance by its latest offering Beat. Skoda India also reported a 43.06 per cent growth in sales at 1,638 units as against 1,145 units in the same month last year. Toyota India’s sales went up by 41.52 per cent at 6,180 units from 4,367 units. But Honda India’s sales dipped by 8.97 per cent at 4,595 units, down from 5,048 units. In the two-wheeler segment, market leader Hero Honda reported a jump of 16.60 per cent in its sales at 4,26,454. It had sold 3,65,734 units in the corresponding month last year. Rival, the Chennai-based TVS Motor sales also rose by 35.72 per cent in June at 1,56,685 units compared to 1,15,448 units in the corresponding month last year. Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India also reported a 41.53 per cent growth in sales.
02 July 2010;timesofindia.indiatimes.com:Pankaj Doval:NEW DELHI: Tata Motors has overtaken Hyundai as the country's second-biggest passenger vehicle maker in June, behind only Maruti Suzuki. As the production of Nano started at Sanand in Gujarat, Tata Motors has been witnessing a bulge in numbers. Auto companies reported robust sales numbers in June, backed by strong demand for new models and comfortable financing rates. The country's biggest carmaker Maruti Suzuki saw sales in the domestic market going up 18% year-on-year at 72812 units, though numbers were down on a sequential basis as demand for cars remains usually subdued in the monsoon months. The company said it was closed for 6 days in June for a planned maintenance shutdown of the facilities. But the action was for the second spot as Tata Motors moved ahead of Hyundai in terms of sales. And as anticipated this edge was given by Nano. Helped by 7704 units sold by Nano in June, passenger vehicle volumes of Tata Motors were up 63% at 27811 units, a few hundred units more than Hyundai's 27366 units (up 19%). However, this is not the first time that Tata Motors has done this. While numbers of a single month cannot be the final verdict on the ranking in the Indian passenger vehicle market, it is believed that Nano numbers could see Tata Motors score higher than Hyundai quite regularly. Others who saw demand remain strong was General Motors and Ford, both of whom are going strong on the back of new small cars they have launched. GM's Beat compact and Ford's Figo have ensured that the companies have a strong tempo in the domestic market. Toyota and Mercedes were also among companies whose numbers remained strong in the month. Toyota, that is again opening bookings for its Fortuner SUV after clearing backlog, saw numbers going up 41.5% in June, while for Mercedes, the growth was a big 94%. However, volumes were down for utility vehicle maker Mahindra & Mahindra as well as Honda. Mahindra's UV sales fell 4% in June and the company said it had an annual shutdown in the first week of June. On the two-wheeler side, Hero Honda enjoyed a good ride as the company sold 4.26 lakh units at a growth of 17%. TVS, the third-biggest two-wheeler maker, saw domestic volumes up 33% at 1.39 lakh units.
01 July 2010;deccanherald.com:New Delhi: Diesel prices will have to be hiked by another Rs 3.14 per litre if the government is to implement its decision to decontrol diesel rates, like it has done in the case of petrol. When an Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on June 25 decided to raise diesel price by Rs 2 per litre in preparation for an eventual freeing of rates from government control, the gap between domestic rates and the imported cost was over Rs 3.50 per litre. The calculations done on June 25 were mostly based on the average international price in the first fortnight of June. After the hike, the gap had narrowed to just Rs 1.50 a litre. "Today, the under-recovery on diesel is Rs 3.14 per litre," IOC Chairman B M Bansal said. This is because from today, the rates are calculated on the basis of the average of the second fortnight of June, when global oil prices had firmed up. Bansal said the under-recovery on kerosene is Rs 15.60 per litre, while it is Rs 201.80 per 14.2-kg LPG cylinder. IOC, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum were projected to lose around Rs 53,000 crore on selling fuel below cost this fiscal after the EGoM decision to free petrol price led to a Rs 3.50 a litre hike in the rates in Delhi, an Rs 2 per litre increase in diesel prices, an Rs 3 per litre rise in kerosene rates and a Rs 35 per cylinder increase in the cost of LPG. But the industry is now projected to lose 57,700 crore this fiscal on selling diesel, LPG and kerosene below cost, with IOC alone projected to lose Rs 32,250 crore in 2010-11. Oil Secretary S Sundareshan said the government had not decided to limit the subsidy on diesel to Rs 1.50 per litre and pass on the remaining required hike to the consumers. "The decision of the EGoM is that diesel price will be market-determined. As of now the price has been raised by Rs 2 per litre. We are following that," he said. The actual decontrol will happen in "future", he said, without giving a timeline. The talks of limiting subsidy on diesel to Rs 1.50 per litre was a "personal opinion" of Chief Economic Advisor Kaushik Basu, he said.
01 July 2010;business-standard.com:New Delhi: Indraprastha Gas Ltd (IGL) has bagged licence to build and operate CNG stations and piped natural gas network in Ghaziabad. “IGL is an ‘authorised entity’ to lay, build, operate or expand city-gas distribution (CGD) network in Ghaziabad,” the petroleum ministry said in an order yesterday. “We are extremely grateful to the Petroleum Ministry for having reposed its faith in IGL for undertaking city gas distribution project in another city in NCR,” Rajesh Vedvyas, managing director of IGL, said in a release today. In 2009, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) had invited bids for city gas business in seven cities — Allahabad, Ghaziabad and Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh, Shahdol (Madhya Pradesh), Rajahmundry and Yanam (Andhra Pradesh) and Chandigarh. IGL, which had pre-PNGRB authorisation for CNG operations in Ghaziabad, had challenged PNGRB’s move in the Delhi High Court. IGL had claimed that the board lacked powers to issue authorisation for city gas business since Section 16 of the PNGRB Act was not notified. Earlier this year, the high court had barred the board from issuing authorisation. “In view of non-notification of Section 16... it is held that the board has no power to grant authorisation to entities which applied to it for laying, building, operating or expanding city or local natural gas distribution networks... this is in consonance with the Central government’s stand in the counter-affidavit filed before this court,” the high court had said in January. The central government also told the court that the board was “not currently empowered to issue authorisations”. The board has challenged the high court order in the Supreme Court.
Modalities of revising petrol rates to be decided in 2-3 wks
01 July 2010:dailypioneer.com:New Delhi: Days after freeing the prices of petrol from government control, the Oil Ministry today said modalities like the periodicity of revision in rates in line with international oil movements will be decided in 2-3 weeks’ time. Unlike the decontrol of petrol and diesel prices during the NDA regime, when rates were adjusted by oil companies on the 1st and 16th of every month based on average international fuel prices, the oil ministry is treading cautiously this time. “Modalities like periodicity of revision, etc, will be decided in consultation with the (state-owned) oil marketing companies in 2-3 weeks’ time,” Oil Secretary S Sundareshan told reporters here. The government had on June 25 decontrolled petrol prices, leading to a Rs 3.50 per litre increase in rates in Delhi. It had also announced its intent to free diesel prices, but for the time being, the rates of the transport fuel have been raised by Rs 2 per litre, with ultimate decontrol being put off to a later date. Refusing to say when diesel rates would also be freed, Sundareshan said the delay in finalising modalities for market-driven petrol prices was because the fuel was being freed “for the first time.” In fact, petrol and diesel prices were freed from government control for almost two years between April, 2002, and early, 2004, during the BJP-led NDA regime. The NDA government stopped the fortnightly revision in rates a few months before the General Elections in 2004 and the UPA government formally brought the controls back in June, 2004. Sundareshan said it is to be decided if the three state oil retailers -- Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum -- will fix rates in tandem or separately. “Secondly, it needs to be seen to what extent private companies (like Reliance Industries) enter the market and thirdly, what rate the oil marketing companies will pay to their refineries for the petrol,” he said. Currently, prices of aviation turbine fuel (ATF) -- which were freed from government control in April, 2002, but unlike petrol and diesel have not been regulated thereafter -- change on the 1st and 16th of every month, based on average international jet fuel rates. For petrol and diesel, the oil PSUs calculate the desired retail price every fortnight, while the same is done for LPG and kerosene on a monthly basis. It remains to be seen if petrol prices will also be revised every fortnight or a larger periodicity would be decided to avoid frequent changes at the retail level.
1 July 2010;deccanherald.com:Tokyo: Toyota Motor Corp is to recall its top-of-the-range Lexus LS460 sedans on concerns about the vehicle's engine stalling, a media report said on Thursday. The Nikkei business daily reported that Toyota is considering recalling tens of thousands of the Lexus LS460 worldwide. The model's engine reportedly stalls while the vehicle is running and in the worst-case scenario, might not restart, the daily said. Toyota has received no reports of accidents related to the problem, the paper said. The automaker is in the process of investigating the cause of the problem. It would be the latest in a series of quality problems for Toyota since last fall. The world's biggest automaker has recalled more than 10 million vehicles worldwide over problems with accelerator pedals, floor mats and brakes, which put a dent into its reputation for quality and safety.
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