Proposed duty hike fuels rush to buy luxury cars in Ahmedabad
Saturday, 19 March 2011
19 March 2011;timesofindia.indiatimes.com:AHMEDABAD: All these years, Rajendra Patel, a businessman from Bharuch, dreamt of driving a silver Audi. Earlier this month, 54-year-old Patel compromised on his choice of colour by booking a black vehicle. Reason: Patel needed to book a car before March 31 to escape an impending price hike effective next financial year. With the BMWs, Audis, Mercs and other luxury cars falling in the completely knocked down (CKD) category set to get costlier by anything between 60% to 100%, aficionados in Gujarat are rushing to seal a deal before the next fiscal starts. Besides the usual yearend depreciation gains, a provision in recent Union budget hiking import duty on assembled and CKD cars from the current 10% to a pinching 60% from April 1 is believed to be driving sales of high-end cars now. Car dealers say customers are demanding deliveries before March 31 in anticipation of prices going up in the range of Rs 10 lakh to Rs 15 lakh on certain models of Audi, Mercedes, BMW and Volkswagen. The move is likely to bring prices of CKD vehicles at par with completely built units (CBU). "A hefty 60 per cent import duty on them might go up to as much as 110 per cent after factoring in VAT and other levy," says a dealer. "As against 35 cars last March, this time we have booked 50.We are expecting even more bookings after Holi, as soon as the inauspicious 'Holastak' period ends," says Anil Chhatwa,COO,Audi, Ahmedabad. Aditya Patel, promoter of a city-based engineering firm, has decided to upgrade his car after Holi.Patel plans to buy an Audi before it gets dearer. Paras Somani, executive director Mercedes Ahmedabad, confirmed that sales of CKD cars have seen a spurt from 50 last March to over 70 during the same period this year. Though officials at BMW dealership did not divulge sales figures, sources say bookings in Gujarat have doubled as compared to previous year. Audi, BMW and Mercedes have sold about 300 cars during 2010 calendar year.
19 March 2011;timesofindia.indiatimes.com:NEW DELHI: Crude oil and coking coal prices are likely to go up due to the nuclear crisis in Japan. This will directly affect the Indian economy as well, according to reports. Other countries like Germany has also decided to shut down its atomic power reactors, which are producing 7,400 megawatt of electricity. According to Barclays Capital, Japan will spend around $65-$125 billion (5-10 trillion Japanese yen) on reconstruction of buildings and other infrastructure, which have been damaged in the earthquake. Besides this, the total loss in exports, private consumption and manufacturing output will be around $80 billion. After the earthquake and tsunami, Japan has already closed nuclear reactors with electricity generating capacity of 12,400 MW, which accounts for 5% of the country's power generation capacity.
Honda not sure when Japan plants will return to normal: WSJ
Friday, 18 March 2011
18 March 2011;economictimes.indiatimes.com:Japan's Honda Motor Co has warned US dealers that it is not sure if it will be able to resume full production at certain Japanese plants before May, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a memo distributed by the automaker. Japanese car manufacturers including Honda, Toyota Motor Co and Nissan Motor Co are struggling to restart production amid a shortage of parts and workers in wake of last week's earthquake and tsunami. Honda spokesman Hajime Kaneko said that its US business arm Honda America had distributed a memo to U.S. dealers that it planned to review each dealers' product allotments for vehicles to be built after May. But Kaneko said the automaker has not stopped taking orders, and denied the WSJ report that said the company would stop taking orders for several models made in Japan, including the Honda Fit, a sub compact; the Civic hybrid; the Insight hybrid, and the Acura TSX, TSX Wagons and Acura RL. The CR-V sport-utility vehicles that Honda makes in Japan. are also affected, the report said. Most of Honda's CR-Vs are made in North America. "While we plan to resume automobile production in Japan as quickly as possible, we cannot say with certainty when those production plants will return to their full capacity," John Mendel, the executive vice president of American Honda, said in an e-mail to U.S. dealers that was reviewed by the Wall Street Journal. The car maker is expected to give an update on production later on Friday.
OMCs breathe a sigh of relief as crude oil price declines
Friday, 18 March 2011
18 March 2011;business-standard.com:Ajay Modi:New Delhi: Oil marketing companies (OMCs), hit by a surging crude oil price and inability to raise prices of diesel, kerosene and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), are breathing a sigh of relief, as the northward rally in crude has stopped. The Indian basket of crude is at a three-week low of $106.68 per barrel. The high under-recoveries on these products are expected to come down in the next fortnight. “The decline is a welcome relief. While our losses on sales will continue, working capital requirement will come down, as the outgo on crude purchase will be lower,” said G C Daga, director (marketing), IndianOil, the country’s biggest OMC. OMCs, however, pointed out that the decline was small and concerns remained on losses. B Mukherjee, director (finance), Hindustan Petroleum, said under-recoveries were high and there was serious concern. The Indian basket of crude oil has so far averaged around $110.36 per barrel in March, nine per cent more than the February average of $101.16. The current financial year average price is $83.88 per barrel, 20 per cent more than the 2008-09 average of $69.76. However, prices have been on a declining trend for some days in tune with global crude prices that have seen marginal softening, following the earthquake in Japan. State-owned companies sell diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene at government-controlled prices and, therefore, incur under-recovery or revenue loss on sale of these products. Petrol was decontrolled from June 25, 2010. A company’s loss is compensated by the government from time to time. Now, OMCs — IndianOil, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum — incur a loss of Rs 15.79 on every litre of diesel, Rs 24.74 on every litre of kerosene and Rs 297.80 per cylinder. On petrol, companies continue to incur a loss of Rs 4.50 per litre, as they have not been able to pass on the rise. The combined gross loss on the three products (excluding petrol) for this financial year is estimated at Rs 78,000 crore. The government compensates these losses through cash and discounts from upstream oil companies.
Oil output from D1,D3 fields to fall by 13 per cent: RIL
Friday, 18 March 2011
18 March 2011;deccanherald.com:New Delhi: Reliance Industries has projected 13 per cent drop in output from the nation's biggest gas fields in the KG-D6 basin to 38 million standard cubic meters per day in 2012-13. In its annual work program submitted to upstream oil regulator Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), Reliance stated that natural gas output from Dhirubhai-1 and 3 or D1 and D3 gas fields in the block KG-DWN-98/3 or KG-D6, will be about 38 mmscmd in 2012-13 from current production level of 43-44 mmscmd. Upto 9 mmscmd will come from D-26 or MA oil field in the same block, taking the total output from the deep-sea area in Bay of Bengal to around 47 mmscmd. At present, KG-D6 block is producing around 51-52 mmscmd. Officials with direct knowledge of the development said Reliance has projected maintaining the current production levels during 2011-12 fiscal. A Reliance spokesperson, however, did not offer any comments. Reliance at present sells 14 mmscmd of gas from KG-D6 to fertiliser plants, 24 mmscmd to power plants and the remaining 13 mmscmd to other sectors like sponge iron plants, LPG, city gas distribution (CGD), petrochemical plants and refineries. Officials said the company has projected crude oil output from the MA field in the same block to fall to 12,050 barrels per day from about 17,000 bpd current production. RIL shares were trading 3.54 per cent dwon at Rs 994.95 a piece on Bombay Stock Exchange at noon.
Tata Motors to hike prices of passenger vehicles from April 1
Friday, 18 March 2011
18 March 2011;timesofindia.indiatimes.com:NEW DELHI: Tata Motors on Friday said it will hike the prices of its passenger vehicles, excluding the Nano, by up to Rs 36,000 from April 1, to offset rising input costs. "Despite continuous cost control initiatives, the company is being forced to take these increases on account of steep rise in input costs," Tata Motors said in a statement. Under the revised price, the Indica will be costlier by Rs 7,000-Rs 9,000, Vista and Indigo CS by Rs 8,000-Rs 11,000 and Manza by Rs 10,000- Rs 15,000. The Nano will, however, not be revised. In the utility vehicles segment, depending upon the model, Sumo prices will go up by Rs 13,000- Rs 15,000, Grande by Rs 16,000- Rs 19,000, Safari by Rs 18,000- Rs 29,000, Aria by Rs 30,000- Rs 36,000 and Venture by Rs 9,000-Rs 12,000.
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