09 July 2009;economictimes.indiatimes.com:NEW DELHI: Government will roll back the Rs 4 a litre hike in petrol prices and Rs 2 a litre increase in diesel rates if international crude oil prices stabilise between $50 and $60 a barrel, Oil Minister Murli Deora said. "Yes, we will cut prices if crude prices stabilise for sometime between $50 and $60 per barrel," he said here. The Government had last week raised petrol and diesel prices citing spike in international crude oil prices to $70 a barrel. International rates have eased since. The basket of crude oil India buys was at $61.58 a barrel yesterday but the average for July was $65.34 per barrel. The July average was certainly lower than $69.12 a barrel average price of Indian basket of crude for June. Deora said the price rise was unavoidable as India was dependent on imported crude oil to meet 75 per cent of its domestic oil needs. Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum were projected to lose Rs 4,870 crore in revenues every month on selling petrol, diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene below the cost. "To cover this (revenue loss), the retail prices were required to be increased by Rs 6.94 per litre on petrol, Rs 4.11 a litre on diesel, Rs 96.68 per LPG cylinder and Rs 16.01 per litre on kerosene," Deora said. "However, the Government increased the price of petrol only by Rs 4 per litre and of diesel by Rs 2 a litre."
09 July 2009;economictimes.indiatimes.com:NEW DELHI: Car maker Nissan Motor India on Thursday cut the prices of its products by Rs 5,000 following the Budget's proposal to reduce the excise duty on big cars. "We welcome and appreciate the positive direction taken by the government and have decided to pass on the entire benefit to our customers," Nissan Motor India Managing Director Kiminobu Tokuyama said in a statement. The company would now offer its sports utility vehicle X-Trail between Rs 20.35 lakh and Rs 24.65 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi). Luxury sedan Teana of the Japanese car maker would be available for Rs 21.42 lakh in India, the statement said. Other car makers, including Mitsubishi, Hyundai and Ford, have also reduced their prices up to Rs 6,000 to pass on the benefit of excise cut. The Budget has proposed to reduce the additional excise duty on big cars with engine capacities of 2,000 cc and above by Rs 5,000 per unit.
09 July 2009;timesofindia.indiatimes.com:NEW DELHI: New models, discounts and easing retail finance helped car sales grow for the fifth month in a row, with June sales up 8% at 1.07 lakh units against 99741 units in the same month last year. Overall, automobile sales in the month were up 14% at 9.17 lakh units against 8.02 lakh units in June last year. According to wholesale data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), market leader Maruti led the charge and accounted for more than half of the sales. It sold 54,693 units, showing a growth of 12%. Companies like Hyundai, Honda Tata Motors also saw numbers going up in the month. New models including Maruti Ritz, Honda Jazz and Fiat Grande Punto, also witnessed growth. "Also, the discounts offered around the monsoon season and the gradually-improving situation on the front of retail financing has been keeping the numbers healthy. However, there could be some slowdown in the coming months as demand normally slackens during monsoons," said an industry analyst. Car sales in the first quarter of this financial year have increased by a modest 4.7% at 3.23 lakh units against 3.09 lakh in the April-June 2008 period, SIAM said. Motorcycle sales also remained healthy in June, thanks to the push given by market leader Hero Honda. The company saw sales increasing by 23% at 3.41 lakh units. While second-biggest company Bajaj Auto saw another month of downturn, TVS also slipped and saw June sales going down on a year-on-year basis. The scooter market also remained robust as sales went up 25% at 1.11 lakh units against 89,809 units in June 2008. All the top three players — Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India, TVS and Hero Honda — saw demand going up. However, just as other segments grew, the commercial vehicle segment continued its bad run. Overall commercial vehicle sales remained negative and fell 12.5% in June at 36,193 units against 41,369 units in the same month last year. While the light vehicle segment again managed to grow on good demand for goods carriers, the medium- and heavy-vehicle segment led to the slowdown as sales here was down by 31%. SIAM officials said they expected commercial vehicle sales to remain negative throughout the first half of this fiscal and any revival could be expected only with a pick-up in industrial activity.
Hyundai to shift part of i20 production out of Chennai next year
08 July 2009;economictimes.indiatimes.com:Chanchal Pal Chauhan:NEW DELHI: Hyundai Motor India (HMIL) has decided to shift part of the production of its popular i20 hatchback for the export market from Chennai to save on logistics costs and import duties in Europe. By December 2010, India’s largest car exporter will shift part of the production of the model to one of its facilities in Turkey, the Czech Republic or Slovakia to take production closer to its large overseas markets such as Germany, France, Italy and the UK. “We are looking at competitive pricing for the i20 and will shift some portion of its production next year. While India will remain as the main production hub for the car, the European orders will be met from the new production facility,” HMIL CEO & MD HS Lheem told ET. Logistics costs and import taxes add 10-15% to the price of cars exported from India. A nearly three-week-long strike by workers at its plant near Chennai in April and May hit output, leading the company to shift production of some models to other manufacturing sites. The strike led to a 5% drop in production, forcing the company to re-think on its export target. The company on Tuesday launched two new variants of the i20 for the domestic market. The 1.4-litre CRDi diesel variant comes at a price of Rs 6.2 lakh-Rs 7.2 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi). The automatic variant of 1.4 litre petrol starts at Rs 7.31 lakh and the top-end variant will cost Rs 7.72 lakh in Delhi. It has already sold 12,000 units of the 1.2-litre petrol i20, whose starting price is Rs 4.8 lakh onwards in the domestic market. The i20, Hyundai’s latest hatchback, has been a success in overseas markets, with the company selling around 72,000 units since the car’s launch in December last year. Some 60,000 of these were exported. “We have resumed normal production now and will be starting our third shift in the second plant, where newer models are produced, from July 10,” Mr Lheem said. The Chennai facility is a major global manufacturing hub for Hyundai’s small cars and has the capacity to produce 6 lakh units a year. Exports accounted for about half of the company’s sales of nearly 5 lakh units in 2008. The wholly-owned Indian arm of the South Korean company exported 1.35 lakh cars in the first six months of 2009, a 22% increase over the year-ago period. The i20 is expected to account for over 40% of exports for 2009-10. Hyundai is banking heavily on the stimulus packages being rolled out by various European nations, where cash incentives the equivalent of up to Rs 3 lakh are being provided to buy fuel-efficient cars such as the i20.
Oil, gas market speculation may face restrictions in US
08 July 2009;business-standard.com:Washington: US regulators say they may clamp down on oil and gas price speculators by limiting the holdings of energy futures traders, including index and exchange-traded funds. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission will hold hearings to explore the need for government-imposed restrictions on speculative trading in oil, gas and other energy markets, Chairman Gary Gensler said on Tuesday in a statement. The agency didn’t say when the hearings would start or who would be asked to testify. Senator Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, and Representative Bart Stupak, a Michigan Democrat, have called for action to avoid a repeat of last year’s run-up in crude oil prices to a record $147.21 a barrel, which they blame on speculators. Oil has climbed 44 per cent this year in New York Mercantile Exchange trading, even amid a drop in demand and high levels of fuel in storage. “Our first hearing will focus on whether federal speculative limits should be set by the CFTC to all commodities of finite supply, in particular energy commodities, such as crude oil, heating oil, natural gas, gasoline and other energy products,” Gensler said in the statement. “This will include a careful review of the appropriateness of exemptions from these limits for various types of market participants.” Billionaire investor George Soros told a Senate hearing in June 2008 that the oil price increase that year was caused partly by index funds that buy only oil contracts. Index funds and exchange-traded funds, which mimic an index, can hold oil contracts in excess of available supply. Sanders has introduced legislation that would force the CFTC to invoke emergency authority to stop oil speculation. The agency is seeking input on whether it should impose aggregate position limits, Gensler said. Gensler said in a letter to lawmakers earlier this year that speculators contributed to an asset bubble in commodities in 2008. His statement broke from former CFTC Acting Chairman Walter Lukken, who testified to Congress on September 11 that there wasn’t “strong evidence” index traders were driving up prices. Gensler wouldn’t say in an interview last week if he thought the same thing was happening this year. “The CFTC currently sets and ensures adherence to position limits with respect to certain agriculture products,” Gensler said in the statement. “For energy commodities, futures exchanges set position limits and accountability levels to protect against manipulation and congestion. The exchanges are not required to set and enforce position limits to prevent the burdens of excessive speculation.” The chairman said the CFTC is reviewing exemptions from position limits for “bona fide hedging,” after seeking public comment on whether the exemption should continue to apply to traders who are in the market for financial reasons, rather than those that actually use the commodity. Gensler also said the agency was going to improve its weekly commitment of traders’ reports by separating swaps dealers from hedge funds. The agency will continue to collect and report data from swaps dealers and index investors, extending a “special call” from last year, Gensler said. “Enhancing the quality of information in these weekly reports will better inform market participants and the public about the positions of the various types of traders,” he said.
07 July 2009:business-standard.com:New Delhi: Car makers Ford India and Honda Siel Cars India today cut the prices of some of their models by up to Rs 6,000 a piece to pass on the benefit of excise duty cut on large cars announced in the Budget. While Ford India announced a price cut of Rs 6,000 for its sport utility vehicle (SUV) 'Endeavour', Honda Siel Cars India (HSCI) reduced the prices by Rs 5,000 for its luxury sedan 'Accord' and SUV 'CR-V'. "The price reduction of Rs 6,000 will be applicable to all three variants of the Endeavour," Ford India said in a statement. "The duty reduction has been a welcome step taken by the government though the reduction is limited only to large cars. We are pleased to pass the benefit of the reduction on the Endeavour to the consumer in its entirety," Ford India Vice-President (Sales) Tim Tucker said. Meanwhile, HSCI said following the price cuts, its Accord would be available between Rs 17.72 lakh and Rs 24.80 lakh. Its CR-V would now come at Rs 22.92-Rs 23.62 lakh. Hindustan Motors had already reduced the prices of its partner Mitsubishi's Pajero, Outlander and Montero by Rs 6,000. GM India, Toyota Kirloskar Motor and BMW had also said they would pass on the benefit of excise cuts to consumers. The government had proposed to reduce the additional excise duty on big cars with engine capacities of 2,000 cc and above by Rs 5,000 per unit in the Budget for 2009-10. It also announced a duty cut on petrol-driven trucks to 8 per cent from 20 per cent at present.
