Tata Motors has decided to go for a second block closure at its plant here, this time for five days, from November 25 to 29, in view of the current slow takeoff of its vehicles in the marketplace. The last closure was for three days?November 6-8. The plant produces heavy commercial vehicles.
Sources at Tata Motors? ancillary units at nearby Adityapur, which has been badly hit by the slowdown at the auto major?s plant here, said the company is at present turning out only around 160 HCVs each day compared with the peak production of around 550-600 units. ?We are making as per customer requirement,? is what a Tata Motors spokesperson said when asked how many vehicles the company was producing here per day.
?Across the industry, it has been seen in the month of October 2008 that unavailability of finance coupled with high interest rates is forcing customers to postpone purchases,? a company release said here on Saturday. ?The sales slowdown witnessed would call for appropriate action from Tata Motors from time to time to match the production with demand and avoid unnecessary build-up of inventories in the company or with its dealers,? the release added. Tata Motors added that the five-day block closure being taken is in line with the same objective as was the block closure of November 6-8.