Ashok Leyland forecasts an investment of Rs 600-750 crore in FY24.

Ashok Leyland's truck market share for Q4 FY23 increased to 32.7% from 30.6% in Q4 FY22. Similarly, the bus market share for Q4 FY23 increased to 27.1% from 26.4% in the same quarter last year.

Ashok Leyland, a Hinduja Group flagship firm, hopes to return to 'normal' capital spending of about Rs 600-Rs 750 crores in FY24, compared to the company's tightening in FY23 and FY22, when it incurred Rs 500 crore and Rs 400 crore, respectively. The comparable capex for the company was Rs 617 crore in FY21 and Rs 1292 crore in FY21 and FY20.

According to Shenu Agarwal, Ashok Leyland's Managing Director and CEO, the firm has considerable capacity visibility for the next 2-3 years, thus a large percentage of the capital would be spent on debottlenecking in addition to other important tasks.

According to him, the development should be regarded in the industry's volume growth tendencies, which will now need some debottlenecking in order to increase operating efficiency.

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During a conference call following the results, he claimed, "There will be no large chunk of investment before adding that the company's capacity utilization was between 80 and 85% in Q4FY23. The primary purpose will be capacity augmentation, and we have a fairly large manufacturing footprint. As a result, there will be some ordinary capital expenditure."

According to published data, Ashok Leyland's truck market share for Q4 FY23 increased to 32.7% from 30.6% in Q4 FY22. Similarly, the bus market share for Q4 FY23 increased to 27.1% from 26.4% in the same quarter last year. Similarly, the company's domestic LCV (light commercial vehicle) volumes increased by 18% to 18,840 units in Q4 FY23.

Management emphasized that the company's growth during FY23 was "wholesome," meaning that it happened across geographies and product ranges. Even in places where the company has historically trailed, such as northern or eastern India, development has been strong, with the company's market share reaching about 25%, up from 19-20% earlier.

Agarwal added that last year, the price disparity between CNG and diesel was not large, resulting in a tapering of demand for CNG-powered vehicles. Though the situation has improved in recent months as a result of new regulatory initiatives, he finished off by saying that it must be monitored to see how demand develops in the coming months.