Coronavirus impact: Maruti to M&M, automakers put brakes on production

Maruti Suzuki India (MSI), the country's largest carmaker, said it was suspending production at its facilities in Haryana "till further notice".

Some of the country’s top automakers have taken the lead in suspending production to safeguard its employees as COVID-19 continues to spread despite lockdowns.

Maruti Suzuki India (MSI), the country’s largest carmaker, said it was suspending production at its facilities in Haryana “till further notice”. The company’s research and development centre at Rohtak would also remain closed, it said. “As a next step, the government policy now requires closure of production and, accordingly, the company has taken a decision on production closure,” the firm said.

Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) said it had suspended manufacturing at its Nagpur plant and would halt production at Chakan (Pune) and Kandivali (Mumbai) from Monday. Anand Mahindra, group company chairman, said on Twitter the company would immediately begin work on how it can make ventilators at its plants.

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“A lockdown over the next few weeks will help flatten the curve and moderate the peak pressure on medical care,” Mahindra said, adding that it would offer its holiday resorts as temporary care facilities and help the government in building such centres.

Mercedes-Benz and Fiat have also suspended operations till the end of this month. Volkswagen is shutting Pune plant for three weeks. After advising staff — except in business-critical roles — to work remotely, Ford India has decided to suspend vehicle and engine production at its manufacturing sites in Chennai and Sanand from March 23 till March 28.

Hero MotoCorp, the country’s largest two-wheeler maker, said it had suspended production at all sites globally till March 31. “The firm has decided to halt global operations — including at India, Colombia and Bangladesh — and the global parts centre at Neemrana till March 31,” it said. Employees at all the other locations, including the Centre of Innovation and Technology at Jaipur, would continue to work from home, it said.

Cars to get pricier in new year: Maruti announces price hike amid slowdown

Primary steel producers in the domestic market have raised product prices by 2.5 to 3 per cent for December to address margin compression and in anticipation of a demand pick-up.

Business Standard : Even as automobile sales have hit a record low, the country’s largest carmaker, Maruti Suzuki, on Tuesday announced a price hike across models from January. Others are likely to follow suit as they gear up to liquidate the stock ahead of rolling out new models in 2020.

Rising input cost, along with the transition of auto firms from BSIV to the more expensive BSVI models, has prompted the industry to hike prices, analysts pointed out. Besides Maruti, Mahindra & Mahindra and Toyota Kirloskar are already working on a price hike. Some others are watching the space before taking a call. This comes soon after another financially stressed industry — telecom —decided to hike tariffs.

According to a regulatory filing by Maruti on Tuesday, the cost of the company’s vehicles had been impacted adversely due to the increase in various input costs. “Hence, it has become imperative for the company to pass on some impact of the above additional cost to customers through a price increase across various models in January 2020,” the company, which saw its November sales dip 3.2 per cent from a year ago, told the BSE without indicating the extent of the hike.

Primary steel producers in the domestic market have raised product prices by 2.5 to 3 per cent for December to address margin compression and in anticipation of a demand pick-up. That has pushed up the cost for automakers.

The price hike announcement at this point may boost sales in the short-term if buyers advance their purchase, analysts believe.

Cars to get pricier in new year: Maruti announces price hike amid slowdownPassenger vehicle sales in India have declined in 11 out of 12 months as poor economic growth has weighed in on buyers' sentiments. The GDP grew 4.5 per cent in the second quarter of FY20, marking the slowest expansion in six years. The index of eight core infrastructure industries contracted 5.8 per cent for October 2019, hitting a new low. Among the eight segments, the steel industry witnessed a 1.6 per cent fall in October, worse than a 1.5 per cent drop in September.

Led by festivals and steep discounts, passenger vehicle sales rose 0.28 per cent in October, over a year ago period. With the festive fervour drying up, sales slipped again in November. Soon after the Maruti announcement, a spokesperson at Mahindra and Mahindra said the company was “contemplating a hike in early January”.

A decision will be taken later this month.

Chennai's Dhivya Suryadevara named first female CFO of General Motors

She played an integral role in some significant deals at GM including the divestiture of its European arm Opel and the acquisition of self-driving vehicle startup Cruise, GM said in a statement.

One more moment of pride for the city of Chennai, as city native Dhivya Suryadevara has been appointed as Chief Finance Officer (CFO) of the US largest automaker, General Motors. It may be noted that Google CEO Sundar Pichai was another Chennaiite who has made it to the top of the global multinational internet major.


Suryadevara, 39, currently the vice president, Corporate Finance, will succeed Chuck Stevens, the GM's present CFO, on September 1, the company said in a statement.


She was in Chennai till her college days after her bachelor's and master's degrees in Commerce from the University of Madras and moved to the US at the age of 22 to pursue her MBA from Harvard University. She worked at UBS and PricewaterhouseCoopers before joining the Detroit-based GM in 2005 at the age of 25.
According to an interview published in the Real Simple magazine, earlier, she spent most of her childhood in Chennai.


Her father passed away when she was very young and mother raised Dhivya and her two siblings on her own. She completed her graduation in Commerce from the University of Madras.


She elaborated to the magazine that her mother made sure that their education was taken care of well.


Suryadevara, an Indian-American chartered financial analyst, will report to GM's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mary Barra. Chennai perhaps is one of the few cities globally which produced women leaders for the auto industry.


Mallika Srinivasan heads TAFE, one of the World's largest tractor makers. Arathi Krishna, her younger sister Arundhati are heading one of the World's leading auto components makers Sundram Fasteners.

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