Ashok Leyland of the Hinduja Group on Monday announced non-working days for 4 of their plants, following weak demand for their vehicles. The Hinduja Group company announced 16 non-working days for its Ennore (Chennai) plant and 5 non-working days for it's Hosur (Tamil Nadu) unit. "Following are the non-working days at our various plant locations during September 2019, due to continued weak demand of our products," the company's filing to the BSE said.

Ashok Leyland announces non-working days at plants

The filing also mentioned a break of 10 days for plants at Alwar (Rajasthan), Bhandara (Maharashtra) and 18 days for Pantnagar  (Uttarakhand). Layland's moves come in the wake of a slowdown in the automobile sector. The automobile company had shut it's Pantnagar plants for 12 working days in July and closed down its factory in June for about a week to match the production with its sales in June as well.

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Automobile sector in a fix

Last month, Chennai based automobile group TVS, Hero moto corp and the automobile giant Maruti Suzuki, all announced a suspension in the automobile manufacturing unit, to ensure their production unit is in line with the sales. According to a report by Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), the Automobile Sector revealed that the sales of passenger vehicles dropped by 32% and Commercial Vehicles and Three Wheelers registered a de-growth of (-) 44.44 percent, and (-) 12.40 percent respectively in April-August 2019. 

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Government assures help to the automobile industry

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The shares of Ashok Leyland were trading at Rs.63.05 which saw a decline of 1.33 percent over the previous close at the BSE. The Union Minister on Thursday assured the automobile industry of support from the Government. "I will follow it up with the Finance Minister. The sector needs help right now to increase vehicle sales," Gadkari said. Speaking at an event earlier, SIAM (Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers) President Rajan Wadhera had asked the government to consider reducing GST on automobiles to help it overcome the prolonged slowdown.

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