[JS Kwt]

Maruti Suzuki India is likely to operate just one shift at all its plants, with demand for cars slumping to multi-decade lows across the country and causing inventory to bloat ahead of the traditional festive season.

The carmaker that sells one in two cars running on Indian roads might slash one shift even at the Manesar plant, which will now likely join the Gurugram & Gujarat facilities in operating below capacity, multiple people aware of the move told ET.

The Manesar plant has an annual capacity of 750,000 units, and it makes Ertiga, Wagon-R, Swift, Dzire and Baleno cars.

Production cuts at the maker of Swift and Baleno have meant hundreds of job losses for contractual staff. With all plants likely to move to a single shift, some more jobs are at risk, sources told ET.

Maruti Suzuki has been taking periodic shutdowns at plants to adjust production.
In FY20 so far, Maruti Suzuki has cut production by 10%.

Source: ET

[shankar.balan]

Deep soup.

The rise of usage experiential desires and the decline of the ownership/ possession thought process...

[GTO]

I'm not that bothered about the manufacturers, but the real dark side of an auto industry slump is on the workers & other entry-level staff. These are the first to be laid off, have their hours cut or get a salary cut. Typically leading a hand-to-mouth existence with no real savings to speak of, a bad auto industry affects them the most.

My heart goes out to them .