Improved road infrastructure to cut travel time which will lower overall logistics cost: Ashok Leyland's Sanjeev Kumar

New Delhi [India], June 25 : India's commercial vehicle (CV) industry is poised for steady growth, driven not only by strong economic fundamentals but also by rapid infrastructure development.

Sanjeev Kumar, President - M&HCV at Ashok Leyland, said, "The overall road infrastructure is improving significantly. New highways are being built, and travel times are being reduced by almost 50 per cent. This will play a crucial role in lowering India's overall logistics costs."

Ashok Leyland, one of India's leading commercial vehicle (CV) manufacturers, remains optimistic about the growth prospects of the CV industry in the current financial year, backed by a strong economic outlook, infrastructure improvements, and changing industry trends.

Speaking on the industry outlook, Sanjeev Kumar said, "The CV industry saw a growth of 3 per cent last year. For the current year, we expect the industry to continue on a positive trajectory with a single-digit growth of around 3 to 5 per cent. This will mark the fourth consecutive year of sustained growth for the CV sector."

He highlighted the unusual stability the industry is currently experiencing. ""So generally, if you look in the past, after every 2nd year, we have seen a down trend. So this is the 4th year running and we are quite upbeat about CV industry," Kumar said

Kumar also emphasized the role of macroeconomic indicators in driving CV demand. "India continues to be a bright spot in, overall world economy, and when GDP grows, the major beneficiary is always the CV industry. You have more consumption. You have core industries are doing well, and it really helps in the CV industry as we are the major players who are going to benefit from this growth," he said.

In addition to economic growth, structural changes within the industry are also contributing to its strength. Kumar pointed out that India is transitioning from using smaller tonnage trucks to higher capacity vehicles and prime movers.

Kumar stated, "With a better intra-industry going through a transition, where, earlier we used to go for small tonnage trucks, now India is going through this transition where we are going for higher tonnage trucks. We are going through prime movers because in truck can support that. So it may not lead to a reduction in the cost of the trucks, but it will definitely make the overall cost of running the truck competitive."

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