Tata Motors to continue with planned investment of Rs 3,000 cr

The company recorded weak trend in total sales in August

Auto major Tata Motors today said it will go ahead with planned investment of Rs 3,000 crore during the fiscal to support growth in future despite the economic slowdown.

"As of now, there is no change in our plan. We will continue with our game plan of investment that we had planned during the beginning of this fiscal and we will continue to stay with that investment," Tata Motors Senior VP Commercial Passenger Vehicle Business Unit Ankush Arora told PTI here when asked whether the economic slowdown would hit their Rs 3,000 crore investment plans for this fiscal.

"We will certainly tighten up our belts and try to be smarter in our investments. We will not be delaying any of our projects which we are working on, which calls for such investment," he said.

Commenting on the weak trend in Tata Motor's total sales in August, he said: "Market is extremely challenging and economic situation is not something great, we are also facing same challenges;

"....On overall basis, our volumes have not been to the level where we were last year, but in certain pockets, as our portfolios get enhanced in months ahead we will find favoured with different set of consumers."

"We are facing a challenging situation today, but basic fundamentals of the business are very strong and I think it's just a matter of time for us to bounce back and be a valuable player in the market."

Stating that south is very critical market for Tata, he said: "Close to 55-60% of our volumes come from south and our performance in current fiscal from April to July specifically from Karnataka and AP, where overall industry has dropped by 1.6%- but we have grown our business by close to 12%."

Without giving any guidance regarding plans to revise growth target due to adverse market conditions, Arora said: "We are in a very very dynamic and volatile market situation, we need to rally live for the day and week, ....We are going to be fine tuning our business, adjusting our business every day to make sure that we stay ahead."