Nigeria has been one of the biggest export market for Bajaj Auto which accounted for about 35% of export revenues. The company is reported faced with tough conditions in the Nigerian market and was left with no choice other than hiking the prices of its products to offset the impact of cost there. In the last fiscal, the company reportedly sold about 5 lakh motorcycles and held about 44% of the market share.
Bajaj Auto has reported hiked the prices of its three-wheelers and two-wheelers by about 4-5%. As per a statement by Rajiv Bajaj, Managing Director, Bajaj Auto on a TV channel stated, “One part is to pass some of the price increase to customers and I think all major players have already done that to a large degree. In the past week we have already passed on up to 4-5 per cent in terms of retail price change.” Bajaj Auto bills its customers in dollars and its devaluation from US dollar by over 8 per cent to about 168 per dollar is sure to affect costs.
Speaking more on the occasion, Mr. Bajaj said, “There is no doubt that Nigeria is our biggest export market. In recent months we have actually been doing close to 50,000 motorcycles a month and 5,000 three-wheelers. Obviously this is an important issue for us and as you can imagine we have been tracking it. So far from what we understand the situation is pretty much under control. We are still seeing very strong volumes. In fact, the two-wheelers (segment) in particular is growing very smartly and I would expect that, for the rest of this fiscal, we should continue to see more or less the same growth year-on- year as we have witnessed so far.”
