Despite unanticipated liquidity crisis affecting MHCV industry sales and production, Setco's sales from Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) segment grew by 9.9% and sales from Aftermarkets segment grew by 32.2% in this quarter. LavaCast (a subsidiary of Setco) ramps-up its capacity utilization to ~70% utilization in Q3 FY19 vs ~60% in Q2 FY19 and is expected to move up to around 80% during Q4 FY19. Additionally, with the recent inroads into the farm-equipment segment and the introduction of new generation clutches (ASD clutch) in US Aftermarket, the company is poised to grow significantly going forward.
Harish Sheth, Chairman & Managing Director at Setco Automotive, said, "This quarter, the NBFC liquidity crisis has temporarily affected the growth rate of MHCV sector. This is more of a short term correction, however, the long term fundamentals remain robust. With the liquidity crisis abating and impending switchover to BS-VI norms, we expect the demand to pick up significantly from the first quarter of the new fiscal. The growth-friendly measures announced in the budget, coupled with the reduction in interest rates announced recently would give a further flip to the underlying growth drivers of infrastructure and GDP growth."
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