Rate this News Article from 1 to 5, where 5 stands for
"Excellent" and 1 stands for "Poor".

29 September, 2011 Car maker Maruti Suzuki India on Wednesday said it has started the second shift production at the second unit inside the Manesar facility even as talks between the management and workers’ representatives to end the month-long impasse remained inconclusive.
The discussion between senior company officials and the recognised workers’ body Maruti Udyog Kamgar Union (MUKU), which is negotiating on behalf of the Manesar plant employees, failed yesterday as workers continued to press for taking back all 62 dismissed and suspended people that the management refused.
“The management had accepted to take back 18 employees, while it decided to take disciplinary actions against the rest. However, the workers are demanding to take back all of them and that cannot happen,” a source close to the development told PTI.
With the management refusing to hold direct talks with the Manesar plant workers, whose demand for recognising a new body Maruti Suzuki Employees Union (MSEU) has been rejected, the workers had authorised MUKU to negotiate on their behalf.
The company has so far dismissed 33 workers and suspended 29 on charges of sabotage and deliberate quality compromise. In the meantime, the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) on Wednesday held a protest rally in front of the plant in solidarity with agitators.
Meanwhile, MSI said it has started the ‘B’ shift at the second plant at Manesar on Wednesday.
“The company has also started production of A-Star at Manesar plants today. This is in line with the company’s decision to further scale up production and resume manufacturing other models also at Manesar plants,” it added. Day before yesterday, it resumed production of sedan SX4 at the unit. The company also rolled out 700 units of its hatchback Swift on Wednesday. “This takes the cumulative Swift production since August 31, 2011, to over 10,000 units,” it added.
The deadlock between MSI management and workers of the Manesar plant has been continuing since August 29, when the company prevented them from entering the factory premises unless they signed a ‘good conduct’ bond, following alleged sabotage and deliberate compromise on the quality of cars being produced.

View the original article here

Rate this News Article from 1 to 5, where 5 stands for
"Excellent" and 1 stands for "Poor".

21 September, 2011 Carmakers have slashed production during the festival season for the first time in a decade as rising interest rates and fuel prices have led to a pileup of unsold vehicles.
While the domestic auto industry raced to a growth of more than 30 percent during September-October last year, the expectations are muted this time round as demand is slowing down in the auto sector, reflecting and exacerbating the larger economic malaise.
Three of the largest carmakers, Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors and Hyundai Motor have scaled down production, top component suppliers were quoted.
Departing from its usual practice of ramping up production during the festival season, the country’s leading carmaker Maruti Suzuki has cut production by 10-20 percent depending on the models. The move comes even as the company faces a major downslide in production because of the ongoing labour unrest at its Manesar plant which has led to higher inventories than the industry average of 15,000-20,000 vehicles. Tata Motors, too, has realigned its production while Hyundai India has resorted to exporting cars produced for the domestic market.
A senior Maruti Suzuki official on the condition of anonymity has been quoted that the company is open to increasing production soon if it sees an uptick in demand. “Yes, we have corrected our production because we do not want inventories to pile up. We are meeting every fortnight and we will increase production depending on the demand,” the official said.
P Balendran, vice-president, General Motors India, said carmakers generally see a growth of 20 percent or more in volumes during the festival season. However, he added, “Now, with unprecedented hike in interest rates, hike in petrol prices, high inflation, and negative market sentiments we are not expecting incremental volume of more than 5 percent during this festival season.”
Nearly 70 percent of cars are sold on credit and interest rates have soared nearly 300 basis points over the past year and a half. Petrol cars comprise a whopping 90 percent of unsold vehicles as the price gap between petrol and diesel has widened to almost Rs 25 per litre. Even as the demand for diesel cars is growing, carmakers are finding it difficult to sell petrol models despite offering attractive freebies.
It is a double whammy for Maruti Suzuki, which is facing a pile up of unsold cars even as it is being forced to keep 90,000 customers on hold for its hatchback Swift. The company’s functional Gurgaon plant is churning out mainly petrol models which are not selling while the Manesar plant, which manufactures the Swift, is in the grip of labour unrest.

View the original article here

Rate this News Article from 1 to 5, where 5 stands for
"Excellent" and 1 stands for "Poor".

26 August, 2011 German luxury car maker BMW on Thursday said it has increased annual output from its Chennai plant to 11,000 units with the start of second shift from June.
The company, which is present in India through a wholly owned subsidiary, today launched its sports utility vehicle X3 priced between Rs 41.2 lakh and Rs 47.9 lakh (ex-showroom, across India).
“We have expanded our production facility by starting the second shift of production. The production has been expanded to 11,000 units annually from 10,000 units,” BMW India President Andreas Schaaf told reporters in Pune.
Earlier in March, the company had ramped up production capacity from 8,000 to 10,000 units per year in single shift operations.
“If needed we can add another assembly line, if needed we can increase the output of the second shift and if needed we can add another production site. Everything is possible on our strategy for the next 10 years,” Schaaf said. He said the company was targeting to sell one lakh units every year in India, but declined to share any timeline.
In March, BMW India had said it is targeting sales of up to 60,000 units in the next 10 years and will invest an additional Rs 70 crore by 2012. Last year, BMW retained its number one position in the Indian luxury car segment with sales of 6,246 units, which was up 73 per cent from the previous year.
To expand its product portfolio in the country, BMW India today introduced its SUV X3 in diesel options. The vehicle will be produced at its Chennai plant as a completely knocked down unit. The sales of the car will start from next month.
Commenting on the new model, Schaaf said: “The launch of the new BMW X3 is a significant milestone in our growth strategy in India... It will be a volume car for us.” The company has recently increased the number of employees in to over 650.

View the original article here

Friday, May 27, 2011, AutomotiveWorld.com

Honda of the UK Manufacturing Ltd (HUM) has announced its intention to return to a normal daily prod...

*All prices are based on a 12-month membership period.
Any questions? Email us or call our Member Services team on +44 29 2046 8902.

Our free E-Newsletter service is an excellent way of staying up to date with news and features from around the global auto industry.

» Sign up

View the original article here

Friday, May 27, 2011, AutomotiveWorld.com

Reflecting the immediate aftermath of the 11 March earthquake and subsequent tsunami, Mazda has repo...

*All prices are based on a 12-month membership period.
Any questions? Email us or call our Member Services team on +44 29 2046 8902.

Our free E-Newsletter service is an excellent way of staying up to date with news and features from around the global auto industry.

» Sign up

View the original article here