News approved.

can't we get a chart with monthly sales figure of every individual bike?

High sales growth due to inventoy pileup at dealers?

High growth rate in sales reported by HMC and HMSI seems to be due to manufacturers pushing for high inventory levels at dealer place. The stocks are piled up to unprecedented levels not seen for past 2-3 years. No doubt manufactures are reporting rosy pictures of sales which are actually dealer dispatches when the actual retail sales are not so good due to dull market sentiments arising out of high interest and fuel prices. Please read through

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Sluggish demand for two-wheelers on the back of high petrol prices and slowing rural sales is saddling dealers with unsold stocks, though the top two-wheeler makers continue to increase production.
Market leader Hero Motocorp Ltd dispatched more than 500,000 units per month over the last nine months to dealers. But a dealer for the motorcycle maker in New Delhi said his stockpile has increased to its highest in three years. “Sales have completely collapsed,” a Mumbai-based dealer said.
A Delhi-based dealer of Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Pvt. Ltd (HMSI), the country’s third largest two-wheeler maker, too, said his inventory was piling up, perhaps for the first time since HMSI began operations in 2001.
“I have parked motorcycles at my residence as there is no space left in my stockyard,” said the dealer. The local arm of the Japanese bike maker, which always had demand outstripping supplies, has embarked on an aggressive expansion plan, which the dealers cite as a main reason for the stocks building up.
“Sales are typically low at this time of the year, but this year has been worse,” said a Mumbai-based dealer for Bajaj Auto Ltd. Inventory at his dealership has risen by 10-12% in the past two months compared with a year ago, he said.
None of the dealers agreed to be identified for this story.
Two-wheeler sales in India expanded at a brisk 18% in the first half of fiscal 2011-12 but began losing traction and growth dropped to 12% between October and January.
Anil Dua, senior vice-president, marketing and sales, at Hero Motocorp, denied there was an inventory pile-up with Hero’s dealers. Hero maintains stock levels of two to three weeks across dealers, he said.
“What’s playing on everyone’s mind is the 25% growth (in sales) seen in the last two years,” he said, adding the current scenario has to do with cyclicality of the business. “What we are seeing now is normal, with pipelines not being empty and waiting periods disappearing. There are sufficient stocks but there are also sufficient customers.”
Analysts expect sales growth to contract to a single digit in the months ahead.
Surjit Singh Arora, an analyst at domestic brokerage Prabhudas Lilladher Pvt. Ltd, said the slowing sales can be attributed to a high base effect, lower farm income and incessant increases in petrol prices.
Besides, while minimum support prices for crops—the price at which the government buys grains for public distribution and which functions as the floor market price for the grains—haven’t softened compared with the previous year, high input costs have dented the rural purchasing power, he said. “Moreover, with the overall sentiment being weak, people tend to postpone car and two-wheelers which are items of discretionary purchase.”
Rural sales contribute to 45% of Hero’s total sales. Dua said while sales from the rural regions are replicating the urban trend of slowing demand, there was no sharp decline since.
Hero, Honda and Bajaj are on an overdrive to increase production. Two-wheeler makers produced 12.78 million units between April and January, an increase of 17% over the year-ago period, according to industry lobby Society Of Indian Automobile Manufacturers.
Naresh Rattan, vice-president, sales and marketing, Honda, said his firm plans to add 1.2 million customers by July and has bookings for 300,000 motorcycles and scooters.
K Srinivas, president, motorcycles, Bajaj Auto, said retail sales have been slowing since October but Bajaj has managed to keep inventory in check and has been aligning despatches as per demand. “If all the manufacturers had been billing as per actual sales, the sales would have been in the negative terrain during the last two months,” he said.
In India, auto firms report despatches to the dealers and not customers.
Dealers do not expect festivals like Gudipadwa (Maharashtrian new year on 25 March) or the marriage season in the North that begins in April to perk up demand. They expect inventory levels to rise further as manufacturers despatch more units in anticipation of demand during these occasions.
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Source: Two-wheelers pile up in dealers? backyards as sales dwindle - Home - livemint.com

so is piled up inventory at dealership the reason behind honda overtaking tvs as 3 rd largest manufacturer?

+1...
It will be great if we can get Model wise break up like the one in teambhp.com for cars...

What is the source of this info?
Does that even make sense? Whoever has reported this probably has no idea what is going on in the nation!!!

If it was addressed to me, i just pasted the information from the link. The news was pasted from economic times.

By the way no offence taken.

Oh!!! no no no, its not you at all; I know you only quoted the news & this is nothing meant to you. I was talking about the guy who made the source

Glad; Tks.

This is far from truth, HMC showrooms don't even have showpieces/test ride bikes in B'lore, they struggle to explain new bikes features as they lack at least one bike in the showroom , talking about HMSI, there's always huge waiting list. I doubt the report's veracity. And I don't think HMSI will be eager to show high sales figures by this dubious method.

TVS's Sales is declining... that makes sense, they can't hope to go on selling the same bikes. They really have to start introducing new bikes, or the pressure will start building on TVS... Bajaj's sales will go up, once they've started releasing the 200NS onto the roads...

as of now it seems TVS is fighting a battle it has already lost.

and as for HMSI growth figures, there's a limit to how much you can pile up at dealers. so after some time the dealer dispatch's will decline when dealers cant take anymore and want to first clear the piled stocks.

Weird.
At my place,HMC and HMSI rides are all 'take-aways'. Walk in-pay-ride back.
The Yamaha ppl claim there's 700+bookings and a waiting of 4.5months for the R15. But those morons 'actually' deliver in 28-35days. Hype,I know! So even they pretty much are not too low on the inventory.

in my locality except honda every other showroom has decent stock.

Weird!
I hear this hue and cry about the legendary Honda waiting period and suddenly showrooms are overflowing with stocks. Hu-hum.