Chennai: Hinduja Group flagship company, Ashok Leyland announced Monday non-working days at its various manufacturing facilities following weak demand.
“Following are the non-working days at our various plant locations during September 2019 due to continued weak demand for our products,” Ashok Leyland said in a BSE filing.
Accordingly, Chennai-based heavy commercial vehicle major has announced 16 non-working days for its facility in Ennore, five at the Hosur (Tamil Nadu) unit, 10 each in Alwar (Rajasthan) and Bhandara (Maharashtra) unit and 18 days in the Pantnagar (Uttarakhand) factory.
The move by the company follows slowdown in the automobile sector that has forced many manufacturers and component suppliers to cut production and plan temporary plant closures.
Last month, Chennai-based TVS Group auto component maker Sundaram Clayton, automobile major Maruti Suzuki, and two-wheeler maker Hero MotoCorp had announced suspension of production at their facilities in line with market demand.
Shares of Ashok Leyland were trading at Rs 63.05 apiece, down 1.33 per cent over the previous close at the BSE.
Meanwhile the automobile industry witnessed its worst ever monthly sales decline in over two decades for August since 1997-98. The overall passenger vehicle sales dropped by a significant 31.57 per cent last month with 1,96,524 units sold as compared to 2,87,198 units in August 2018. Passenger car sales were the worst hit by a massive 41.09 per cent. In August 2019, 1,15,957 units were sold in comparison to 1,96,847 vehicles in the same month last year.
Utility vehicles sales saw a decline of just 2.2 per cent with 71,478 units sold compared to 73,085 units sold in August last year. The van segment however, saw a massive fall of 47.36 per cent.
Two-wheeler sales too saw a decline of 22.24 per cent with 1,514,196 units sold in August 2019 as compared to 1,947,304 sold in August 2018. Scooters, motorcycles and mopeds saw a decline of 22 per cent, 22 per cent and 21 per cent respectively.
In total, the Indian auto inc. sold 9,732,040 units of vehicles in August 2019 as compared to 11,570,401 units sold in August 2018, which is a decline of 15.89 per cent.
Agencies
