To beat crisis, Hyundai halts production for several days at Chennai unit

Other players who have declared no production days in the recent past, and during this month, include Mahindra & Mahindra, Maruti Suzuki, Hero MotoCorp, Bosch, Jamna Auto, Wabco and Sundaram-Clayton.

The country’s second largest car maker, Hyundai Motor India (HMIL), has declared ‘no-production days’ in various departments, including the body shop, engine shop, in transmission lines and others for multiple days in August.

This has been done because of the downturn in the automobile market.

This comes in line with similar measures taken by Maruti, Toyota, Mahindra, Ashok Leyland, Tata Motors and TVS Group firms to pare production days to overcome the fall in demand.

According to a notice issued by the company’s administration department earlier this month, its passenger car plant had two no-production days on August 10 and 12 for its body shop, paint shop, assembly shop and support teams.

The closure has been set at 10 shifts at its engine shop, nine shifts at another engine shop, and six shifts at the transmission units.

Sources said the firm’s second plant at Sriperumbudur has been on no-production in the recent days.

Responding to a Business Standard query, the company said it was done owing to the auto industry slowdown and fluctuating market demand.

“Over the past several months, Hyundai Motor India has been working on multiple strategies like tweaking production cycles, initiating new internal projects and managing the units per hour volumes suitably calibrated by this situation,” it said.

“Our flexible manufacturing process is completely aligned to the market pull, and is capable of seamlessly handling varying market requirements.

"Specific variances of the market have been built into our business and operational plan, streamlining production schedules accordingly.

"Both our plants are working smoothly as per the operational plans,” it added. Production downtime is planned in line with its operational plan.

Original equipment manufacturers or OEMs and component makers have been shutting shop for several days in a month recently, in order to align production to the low market demand.

Mitsuba Sical India, a component maker, said it may reduce production.

In a letter to suppliers earlier this month, the company said it may curtail production according to the latest customer demand and requested them to restrict resources such as raw material and manpower, according to the latest schedule.

This will help avoid pile up of unnecessary inventory that affects cash flow.

Sources said Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt Ltd also issued a notice to have no-production days for its two plants on August 16 and 17, due to low market demand and high stock of around 7,000 units.

Tata Motors is halting production at its Jamshedpur facility for two days while Ashok Leyland has announced it would have a no-production days on August 17 and 19.

A section of workers at Ashok Leyland’s Ennore unit, which manufactures medium and heavy vehicles and intermediate commercial vehicles, continued to protest within the factory on Saturday despite the company declaring it a no-production day.

However, later in the day, they decided to stop the sit-in protest and sources said that the union leaders may start hunger strike from Tuesday.

Other players who have declared no production days in the recent past, and during this month, include Mahindra & Mahindra, Maruti Suzuki, Hero MotoCorp, Bosch, Jamna Auto, Wabco and Sundaram-Clayton.

Commenting on the outlook, HMIL said it expects that the efforts by the auto industry as well as the Centre will start showing positive results.

“The upcoming festive season should hopefully contribute to the demand upswing.

"Our operational plan is geared to handle the volumes of the upcoming months.

"We do not expect this to have any impact on our readiness for BS VI, and we are prepared to meet the requirements of the market,” it added.