GM India cuts production by 10%

Taking advantage of an extended annual plant maintenance shut down, General Motors India is cutting down production by up to 10% from its plants at Halol in Gujarat and Talegaon in Maharashtra.

P Balendran, vice president, General Motors India, said: "We usually have annual plant maintenance shut down for 7-10 days. This time, we have extended it up to 15 days, and it will result in a reduction in production by up to 10 per cent."

The two plants have been shut down from December 16 till the end of this year, he added.

Balendran said the company, which had set a target of producing 85,000 units from the Halol plant, now has scaled down it to 70,000 units. The Talegaon plant, which went on-stream earlier this year, produces 200 cars a day. It has a capacity to produce 1.4 lakh units annually.

"The extended maintenance shut down will result in loss of only nine working days as we work on a five-day week basis," he said, adding that workers would work on holidays, including weekends, to compensate for the maintenance shut down.

While most carmakers reported decline in sales growth, GM India's passenger car sales, however, grew marginally in November to 3,673 units as compared to 3,653 units in the corresponding month last year.

In fact, last month, the company had increased the production by 19.61 per cent to 4,842 units when compared with 4,048 units in the same month last year.