Ashok Leyland has closed 2005-06 with sales of 61,626 vehicles. This represents a 12.6 per cent growth over its 2004-05 sales of 54,740 vehicles.

While sales of all goods-carrying trucks except the multi-axles shrank, volumes came from the high-margin multi-axles, and passenger vehicles.

What helped was the Supreme Court order of last November that disallowed overloading of trucks. Senior sources in Ashok Leyland told Business Line today that sales of tractor-trailers shot up 5-fold from January. It is understood that in a normal month, the company would sell around 200 units.

Vehicles of tipper applications also were in demand. Passenger vehicles sales picked up and Ashok Leyland ended the year selling 13,400 buses, taking more than 50 per cent of the market.

The company's Managing Director, R. Seshasayee, confirmed today that the company was contemplating a "pricing action", but said that a formal decision was yet to be taken.

Sources also said that the first quarter performance would be better than usual because of the huge backlog of orders for the `4018' tractor-trailers and spillover of Defence orders to this financial year.