India’s leading automobile companies Maruti Suzuki, Hero MotoCorp and Honda Cars India have decided to halt operations at all their manufacturing facilities, in the wake of the novel coronavirus outbreak, and subsequent adoption of severe preventive measures by state governments, including complete lockdown of multiple states, to control the spread of the pandemic. Other auto firms have also suspended operations at some of their plants.
“Maruti Suzuki will shut production and office operations at its facilities in Gurugram and Manesar, Haryana with immediate effect till further notice. The R&D Centre at Rohtak will also remain closed. The duration of this shutdown will depend up on government policy,” India’s largest carmaker said in a statement. Similarly, world’s biggest two-wheeler maker Hero MotoCorp said it would halt production at all its global manufacturing facilities with immediate effect until March 31.
Hero MotoCorp has seven manufacturing units, including five in India and one each in Colombia and Bangladesh, which jointly has a production capacity of 9 million vehicles. The company has recently announced commencing of production at its eighth unit in Chittoor of Andhra Pradesh. Hero MotoCorp chairman Pawan Munjal, through two Digital Town Hall meetings held in quick succession last week, has conveyed the organisation’s commitment to stand by the employees “despite the severe disruptions caused by the ongoing situation,” the company said in a statement. Hero added that its employees at all the other functions and locations, including the Centre of Innovation and Technology at Jaipur in Rajasthan, would continue to work from home, “except for those whose physical presence is necessary to run the day-to-day essential services”.
Honda Cars India also announced suspension of production at its manufacturing facilities in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh and Tapukara in Rajasthan till March 31.According to Honda, it intends to restart production from April 1, although this would be dependent up on advice from the government and health authorities, as well as market and supply conditions. “We have decided to rapidly scale down activities at Pune site to get to skeletal operations by end-Monday (March 23) and be ready for plant closure by end-Tuesday (March 24), if the situation warrants. We shall remain in this mode till March 31 and will review it in due course,” said Guenter Butschek, MD & CEO, , Tata Motors.
Similarly, leading utility vehicle maker Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) has announced suspension of operations at its Nagpur plant in Maharashtra. M&M’s manufacturing unit at Kandivali in Mumbai and Chakan in Pune will be temporarily shut down as well, from Monday (March 23) onwards. Fiat India Automobiles has also suspended operations at its production unit in Ranjangaon near Pune, which comes under its joint venture with Tata Motors Ltd, till March 31. Two days ago, Tata Motors, India’s largest automobile company by revenue, had said that it was preparing for a complete shutdown of its Pune plant for a week from March 24.
9 mn vehicles were being made at Hero MotoCorp’s production units