Kirloskar Electric May Close Shop On Stock Pileup

Wheels of industry coming to a grinding halt as belligerent truckers refuse to budge from their stand on eighth day

Kirloskar Electric is set to stop production as the truckers strike has resulted in a Rs 20 crore loss to the company. Industrial production is crippled as inventories piled up and finished goods remained in the godowns.

We are seriously considering closing of the factory in the next forty-eight hours. We dont seem to have an option, Kirloskar Electric company spokesperson told Business Standard yesterday.

The plant producing large motors and generators has been lying idle with materials not coming in or going out of the factory for one week. With lack of raw materials such as copper, steel, aluminium and fabrication material, the factory was expected to down its shutters to save on the overheads.

 

The cement industry, already battling a slump, was also hit by the strike. The 30 odd cement companies including the majors were having to twiddle their thumbs as an estimated 20,000 tonnes of cement lay in the railway yards at Whitefield. Rajeshree Cement which has 10,000 tonnes of cement coming in from its Gulbarga plant will be incurring around Rs 30 crore a day.

Loss in the daily collections at Mysore Cements has been around Rs 1 lakh. This is a bad beginning of the financial year. Normally, its season time now as construction starts from March but cement trade has been nil, pointed out an official from Rajeshree Cement.

Meanwhile, president of Karnataka Small Scale industries Association Kirti Kumar pointed out that the 1.8 lakh small scale industries in Karnataka were incurring a loss of Rs 20,000-25,000 a day. Industries like the general engineering works and garment factories seem to be the worst hit here. Another huge problem is the lack of diesel to run their generator sets. Half of Karnataka industry is running on generator sets, he added.

The Greater Mysore Chamber of Commerce, which represented 85 per cent of the investments in Karnataka, was critical of the adverse effect of the strike on the industry.

Process industries and cement majors seem to be suffering the most, he felt. Companies like Larsen & Toubro, Valliappa Textiles and Vridz Werner which were struck by labour problems were further hit by the transport strike, he added.

Meanwhile, a federation of the Karnataka Lorry Owners Association spokesperson said, The state government has pleaded with us to call off the strike especially because of the Ugadi festival on April 8.

Transport minister P G R Scindia told Business Standard the truckers had no quarrel with the state government and it was up to the centre to decide on this issue. He added, I have no idea about the Centres stand. You know in what condition the central government is functioning today.