Hero MotoCorp shuts plants from Aug 15-18, says market situation to blame

Company News

India's largest two-wheeler maker, Hero MotoCorp has decided to close its manufacturing facilities for three days. The reasons stated are annual holiday and due to the prevailing market condition. After car makers announced plant closures for a few days, Hero will be the first two-wheeler maker to officially announce a temporary stop in production.
The company stated that production planning is a matter of advance monitoring of market dynamics and prudent demand forecasting. This helps us to plan our production well in advance, thereby enabling us to stay flexible, both in terms of volumes and production schedules, it said."In line with this trend, our manufacturing facilities will be closed from August 15 to 18. While this has been part of the annual holiday calendar on account of Independence Day, Raksha Bandhan and the weekend, it also partly reflects the prevailing market demand scenario," said the company in an announcement to the NSE.
Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) has already announced the closure of its plants for 8-14 days in July-September. Similarly, Tata Motors has announced closure for eight days, Maruti Suzuki for three days, Toyota Kirloskar also for eight days, Ashok Leyland for nine days, Bosch for 10 days, Jamna Auto for 20, and Wabco for 19, according to reports.
While Hero MotoCorp has five plants in India, the construction of its sixth manufacturing facility, at Sricity in Andhra Pradesh's Chittoor district, has reached an advanced stage. It will have an annual installed capacity of 1.8 million units. Once this facility is completed, it will take the company's total installed capacity to around 11 million units.

 The company reported sales of 535,810 units in July 2019, slipping 21 per cent from the same month a year ago, when the two-wheeler manufacturer had reported overall sales volumes of 679,862 units...Read More

Switching to batteries won't reduce an iota of pollution, says TVS MD

Company News

India’s big three two-wheeler makers on Monday hit out at NITI Aayog’s plan to push for 100 per cent electric vehicle, saying such a transition is completely uncalled for and could jeopardise the industry.
Arguing that changing from conventional two-wheelers to 100 per cent electric is “not like Aadhaar, not a software and print cards”, the companies said concerns of all stakeholders must be taken into consideration instead of imposing adoption of EVs. “This is not like Aadhaar, not a software and print cards. You have to set up a whole supply chain, and migrate from the current supply chain,” TVS Motor Chairman and Managing Director Venu Srinivasan said. He said targeting “two- and three-wheelers but not cars makes it an incomplete initiative”.
Srinivasan asserted that “changing to batteries running on thermal power will not reduce one iota of pollution”. Right now, he said,”the two-wheeler contribute to 20 per cent of automotive pollution”. Hero MotoCorp said it was “deeply concerned by the potential repercussions of NITI Aayog’s approach of completely banning two-wheelers up to 150cc that are powered by Internal Combustion Engines”.
Last week, NITI Aayog had asked auto industry body Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam) along with conventional two-and three-wheeler makers to suggest within two weeks, concrete steps towards transition to electric mobility keeping in mind the 2025 deadline.
Hero MotoCorp said the move by NITI Aayog is being at a time “when two-wheelers manufactured in India will have the world’s cleanest emissions, along with the world’s highest fuel-efficiencies, effective April 1, 2020”.

 “Instead of imposing the adoption of EVs (electric vehicles), it would be ideal to have a healthy mix of policy, market dynamics, and customer acceptability,” the country’s largest two-wheeler maker said.