Coronavirus Plays a Role
India’s motorcycle market was down in 2019—though it’s still massive. The market also hasn’t had the greatest start in 2020. January was less than wonderful and now The Hindu Business Line reports that the month of February wasn’t very good either. One of the key reasons is the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.
The outbreak has caused disruption across Asia and forced shutdowns of many manufacturing and motorcycle facilities and this has had an impact on the industry and sales. The Hero MotoCorp, for example, reported a 19 percent drop in February. Most other manufacturers also reported sales drops. The only two who didn’t were Suzuki and Royal Enfield, both of which saw a modest bump in sales. Hero MotoCorp is the biggest manufacturer in the country.
“The ongoing COVID-19 issue had adversely impacted production at the manufacturing facilities of Hero MotoCorp in the month of February. Since then, substantial progress has been made in developing alternative sources for procuring components. Meanwhile, the component makers in China, having restarted production, are also expected to resume normal supplies soon,” Hero MotoCorp told the Hindu BusinessLine.
It will be interesting to see what happens with this as the year moves forward and the virus continues to spread. This could happen and likely is in other areas of the world, too.