CHENNAI: The automobile industry has built a staggering inventory of over 11,300 commercial vehicles in the first quarter of the current year.

Analysts estimate the value of this inventory pile-up to be in excess of Rs 400 crore (excluding excise).

In the first three months of the current year, the automobile industry rolled out almost 33,000 heavy and medium commercial vehicles (H&MCVs), according to the Association of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (AIAM).

However, it has managed to find buyers for only 26,261 vehicles leading to a pile-up of over 6,700 vehicles.

Of this, TELCO holds over 5,300 vehicles and ALL is stuck with almost 1,400 H&MCVs.

Similary, although 34,100 Light Commercial Vehicles (LCV) were produced, only 29,500 units were sold. This has led to an inventory build-up of 4,600 LCVs.

Here again, TELCO is saddled with almost 4200 LCVs, while Eicher holds over 600 vehicles. Bajaj Tempo and Ashok Leyland had cut down production during the first quarter and have thus managed to evade a major pile-up. In fact these two players sold more than their production in the first quarter.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.