Dunlop to withdraw suspension in phases

Last restructuring exercise, says Ruia.

Dunlop India Ltd (DIL) on Friday decided to lift the suspension of work notice at its Sahaganj plant in phases as part of its 'last attempt' to revive the plant.

“This is the last restructuring exercise. If some way or the other it fails, we may think it is the end of the day,” Pawan Kumar Ruia, chairman of the Ruia Group that owns Dunlop, told the media. However, he emphasised that he is “fully confident” of reviving the plant, adding, “I am committed to Sahaganj and still do not believe it is a bad asset.”

Initially, the withdrawal of stop-work notice will help 50-70 engineers of industrial product divison of total of about 800 employees to get back their jobs, as they will be engaged in repairing work. The company has already approached the West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (WBSEDCL) to resume power supply, following which the repairing work will start.

“We have decided to engage the plant in the production of the industrial products (IP) in the first phase, which will be followed by production of OTR (large tyres). The withdrawal of suspension of work will also apply accordingly,” Ruia said, after a company board meeting. The Sahaganj plant is under suspension of work since October 8.

In the meantime, an independent agency will be engaged by the company to assess the viability of production and labour requirement for the production of the items.“We have not zeroed on the agency yet, it will be finalised in a couple of days. We are expecting them to submit the report in a four to six weeks time. However, during the period repairing work in the IP divison will go on,” he added.

The company also has plans to start production of normal tyres in the longer term, once the proposed 50-MW power plant gets operational. DIL is awaiting the Pollution Control Board (PCB) approval for its thermal plant as captive power generation that would bring down the production cost.

However, the phase-wise withdrawal of the suspension of work may not appease the workers, with leader of the CITU-led trade union at Sahagaunj, Shantashree Chatterjee saying, “We asked for an unconditional withdrawal of notice. We do not agree to this. All of us including INTUC and INTTUC will sit together and decide the next plan of action.”

Meanwhile, state labour minister Purnendu Bose, who along with commerce and industry minister Partha Chatterjee, had been negotiating with company officials for re-opening the factory, refused to react to Dunlop's decision as Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is not in the city.

“The partial withdrawal of suspension of work seems to be a new coinage. The Chief Minister is not here at present. The matter needs to be discussed with CM and the industry minister. Only after that we will give our reaction,” Bose said.

Mamata Banerjee is in Delhi to discuss the proposed bailout package for the state with the centre.

Dunlop India posts a net loss of Rs 66.22 lakh in Q2

Dunlop India has registered a net loss of Rs 66.22 lakh for the quarter ended September 30, 2011, against a net profit of Rs73.88 lakh in the corresponding year. During the period the company clocked a net sales of Rs 498.88 lakh, a fall of 91.26 per cent over the corresponding quarter of previous fiscal.