Tata Motors hits 6-year low as JLR global sales decline 12% in September

 

JLR launches Range Rover Velar SUV, price starts at Rs 7.88 million

Rohit Suri, President & Managing Director, Jaguar Land Rover India Ltd at the launch of Range Rover Velar. BS Photo by Sanjay K Sharma

 

  Shares of Tata Motors hit a six-year low of Rs 201 per share, down 5% on the BSE in early morning trade on Tuesday, after the company-owned Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) on Monday, reported a 12.3% year on year (YoY) decline in global sales at 57,114 units in September, hit by lower demand in China. The stock was trading at its lowest level since July 26, 2012, on the BSE.

“The company's sales in China declined by 46.2% during September as compared to the same month last year as ongoing market uncertainty resulting from import duty changes and continued trade tensions held back consumer demand,” JLR said in a press release.

Sales of Jaguar brand of vehicles in September were at 19,146 units, an increase of 4.4% over September 2017, the company said in a statement. Land Rover range posted sales of 37,968 units in the month, down 18.8%, it added.

“As part of the company’s continued strategy for profitable growth, JLR is focused on achieving operational efficiencies and will align supply to reflect fluctuating demand globally as required,” the company said.

"As a business, we are continuing to experience challenging conditions in some of our key markets. Customer demand in China has struggled to recover following changes in import tariffs in July and intensifying competition on price, while ongoing global negotiations on potential trade agreements have dampened purchase considerations," JLR Chief Commercial Officer Felix Brautigam said.

Despite this, we expect lower tariffs on UK imports to be beneficial over the full year, he added.

In the past six months, Tata Motors has underperformed the market by falling 43% as compared to a 2.5% rise in the S&P BSE Sensex.

At 09:32 am; the stock was trading 4% lower at Rs 204 against 0.27% rise in the benchmark index. A combined 12.23 million equity shares changed hands on the counter on the NSE and BSE.