chennai tumbling crude prices and the resultant forex crisis in a large number of latin american and african countries has had one unexpected fallout motorcycle exports out of india have been pushed onto skid row bike exports which had been vrooming for the past five years are down nearly 11 in the first quarter of the current fiscal pulling down overall twowheeler exports by more than 8 companies like hero motocorp bajaj auto tvs motor and others which had focused aggressively on exports to these markets have been hit hard in the melee the only companies to show export growth have been saarc marketfocused honda motorcycle and scooter india hmsi and lifestyle motorcycle major royal enfield both with a small enough base to clock growth so bad is the situation that the society of indian automobile manufacturers siam recently petitioned the finance and commerce ministries to allow rupee exports to latin american countries the proposal said sources is under consideration so just how bad are things consider the stats bajaj auto clocked a 17 drop in the apriljune period at 323660 units down from 389417 units in the previous first quarter q1 of fy201516 tvs exports dipped 3 to 89265 units from 92068 units in the same period hero motocorps exports which jumped 53 in fy15 to hit 200140 units from 130763 units in fy14 grew just 5 to 210409 units in fy16 auto experts say much of the shrinking has come from the forex turmoil in latin america there are indeed strong headwinds in the export markets on account of the sharp depreciation of local currencies in several countries in latin america and africa said a hero motocorp spokesman this has resulted in a massive liquidity crunch leading to volatility in these economies in view of these developments we have done a quick review of our global business strategy and realigned our resources said a hero motocorp spokesman even honda motorcycle scooter india hmsi which clocked an uptick in exports because saarc countries comprise 70 of its shipments while latin america accounts for the rest saw a 20 drop in exports to the latter said vishnu mathur director general siam the forexdeficient oil economies in latin america and africa have cut back on nonessential imports which has hit twowheeler exports from india part of the problem is that the export basket has changed overwhelmingly in favour of these markets since 2010 hence the hit earlier indian twowheelers were also exported to europe saarc and asean countries twowheeler companies are reacting to the crisis by tweaking their basket of export markets hero motocorp for instance is currently present in over 30 countries across asia africa and south and central america and aims to commence operations in some more markets this fiscal including large twowheeler markets such as argentina and mexico our new manufacturing facility in bangladesh will also become operational this financial year said the company spokesman honda on the other hand is using its global sourcing arrangement