Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland plan production cuts

Auto companies Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland would cut production to adjust to the fall in demand and piling inventories. Tata Motors announced on Wednesday that it had decided to shut down its Jamshedpur plant for three days starting Thursday. Tata Motors is the largest commercial vehicles maker in the country, and produces heavy trucks including tractor-trailers, multi-axle vehicles and tippers at the Jamshedpur plant.

Ashok Leyland too has decided to moderate the production plan for the next two months. Its manufacturing plants will work only three days a week, until December 8. It is also planning to reduce its monthly production target for November to 1,500 units from the average of 6,800 units it clocked each month in the first six months of this fiscal. The volume decline is substantial in case of Ashok Leyland and the company expects its sales to be lower by 15-20 per cent compared with last year.