Can automakers protect margins from rising raw material costs?

ET Intelligence Group: A sharp rise in the raw material costs is likely to offset the pickup in automobile sales volume thereby affecting the margins of auto makers. This is likely to weigh on valuations of these stocks. The BSE Auto index underperformed the S&P BSE Sensex by 4% over the past month after outperforming by 9% in the past six months.Steel, a major input, is costlier by 49% YoY. It accounts for 50-85% of the total raw material