Maruti Suzuki, one of India’s largest car makers, has decided to shut down its two plants in Haryana for two days amidst a growing crisis in the automobile sector. The company, which makes one in two of the passenger vehicles in the country, told the Bombay Stock Exchange in its regulatory filing that the passenger vehicle manufacturing operations at two of its plants in Gurugram and Manesar in Haryana will remain shut for two days on 7 and 9 September.
The company said that both days will be observed as ‘no production days.’
The latest development comes amidst news of a prolonged slowdown affecting the country’s auto sector with lakhs of employees facing job losses.
The decision to observe ‘no production days’ by Maruti Suzuki assumes significance in light of the company reporting 32.7% decline in its monthly sales in August this year. Maruti, according to news agency PTI, had produced a total of 1,11,370 units in August as against 1,68,725 units in the year-ago month. The company had said last month that it had not been able to renew the contract of its 3,000 contractual employees owing to growing inventory costs.
India’s automobile industry is the fourth largest in the world employing nearly 35 million people.
Maruti Suzuki shares were trading 2.47 per cent lower at Rs 5,900.25 per share on Wednesday.
