NEW DELHI: Faced with rising inventories on the back of muted sales, automakers have been forced to suspend production. Companies such as Maruti, Tata, Honda and Mahindra have already announced factory shutdowns stretching over several days in the ongoing quarter, which analysts say could make it difficult for the industry to achieve its growth targets.
In a regulatory filing with the stock exchange, India’s largest carmaker, Maruti Suzuki Ltd, said it had slashed production of passenger vehicles, including Alto, Swift and Dzire, by 18.88 per cent to 1.49 lakh units in May as compared to 1.83 lakh units a year ago. Besides, the company also lowered production of big-selling compact and mini cars. In the mini segment, Maruti produced 23,874 units, down 42.29 per cent as against 41,373 units in the year-ago period.
Overall, the company produced 1.51 lakh units, a cut of 18.1 per cent from 1.84 lakh units in the year-ago month. While Maruti plans a second round of shutdown between June 23 and June 30, Mahindra stated that its manufacturing unit, Mahindra Vehicle Manufacturers, will have “no-production days” for up to 13 days in the first quarter of 2019-20.
Tata Motors’ Sanand plant was shut from May 27 to June 3, while the production unit of Honda Cars India was shut down from June 5 to June 8. Renault Nissan and Skoda Auto plan another round of shutdowns of up to 10 days in June.