New Delhi: India's largest commercial vehicles maker Tata Motors Ltd has decided to halt work at its Jamshedpur-based factory, where it makes trucks and truck parts, for three days this week, on account of piling inventories amid slowdown in India's economy, media reports said Wednesday, citing company's spokesman P J Singh.
"A block closure has been announced from June 28 to 30 in the Jamshedpur plant... We are market driven company that is why we have taken the decision," Singh was quoted as saying by the Press trust of India.
"The block closure was taken in view of the quarterly closing as we cannot pile up inventory," he told the news agency.
The decision was taken with the consent of employees and 50% of the closure would be adjusted against leave of employees and the remainder would be borne by the company, he said.
India's fiscal fourth quarter (Jan-Mar) gross domestic product (GDP) grew 5.3% on-year, sharply slower than the growth rate achieved even during the recession period of 2008-09 and slowest since March 2003, hurt by contraction in manufacturing and slowdown in agriculture and services sectors.
According to industry body Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), Tata Motors' commercial production fell 15.89% to 33,271 units last month.
The domestic car sales were reported at 1,63,229 units in May as against 1,58,809 units in the year-ago period.
Meanwhile, Tata Motors had already closed its Pune-based plant for three days earlier this month, while other auto manufacturer Maruti Suzuki and Toyota Kirloskar Motor have also cut down their production of petrol-driven cars due to piling inventories with consumers opting for diesel-run vehicles in view of higher petrol prices, as per the media reports.
Shares of Tata Motors Wednesday ended at Rs 239.05 on the Bombay Stock Exchange, down 3.06% from the previous close.
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