Demand for tipper trucks rising: Ashok Leyland

With the Centre's infrastructure push and growth in e-commerce, demand for tipper trucks and intermediate commercial vehicles (ICVs) is going up, while demand for multi-axle vehicles continues to be sluggish, said CEO of Ashok Leyland, Anuj Kathuria, while outlining the company's preparedness for BS-VI norms, for which it has invested ₹500 crores. Demand for tippers was subdued in the past 7-8 months due to various factors but now new projects are being mobilized by the government through an aggressive spending plan. Also, coal and steel shipments have improved which will also help revive the industry. Demand for ICVs has not been bad since it was not impacted by axle load norms. Also, the hub-and-spoke model has matured, while the boom in e-commerce has also helped. Thus, the company expects this segment to show improvement in sales, going forward. For the current fiscal, he expects the medium and heavy commercial vehicle volumes at about two lakh units as compared to 372,000 units in 2018-19.