Home Cities Ahmedabad Slowdown not severe, will commission new plant by 2020: Maruti Suzuki MD

Slowdown not severe, will commission new plant by 2020: Maruti Suzuki MD

Ayukawa said there are about 7,000 workers at Hansalpur and there are no plans of job cuts in Gujarat. “Hansalpur has about 7,000 workers. Next year, it will be around 10,000,” he said.

Maruti Suzuki MD Ayukawa said there are about 7,000 workers at Hansalpur and there are no plans of job cuts in Gujarat. .(Express Photo by Amit Mehra)

Weeks after Maruti Suzuki said it has cut 3,000 contract jobs, Kenichi Ayukawa, Managing Director and CEO of the company, said that despite the slowdown, investment plans worth Rs 15,000 crore are on track in Gujarat. He also said the Suzuki Motor Gujarat Pvt Ltd (SMG) will commission the third assembly line and a Lithium ion battery project at Hansalpur in 2020.

“The slowdown is short-term. We are preparing for capacity enhancement in Gujarat… The slowdown is not severe. We are planning to export more from Gujarat,” said Ayukawa, while interacting with mediapersons on the sidelines of India-Japan Business and Tourism Conclave at Ahmedabad Management Association (AMA) on Saturday.

Ayukawa said there are about 7,000 workers at Hansalpur and there are no plans of job cuts in Gujarat. “Hansalpur has about 7,000 workers. Next year, it will be around 10,000,” he said. “To start the third plant next year, we are preparing to hire,” he said, adding that the company was considering to produce a third model of car at the Hansalpur, which is already producing Baleno and Swift.

“The third assembly line (having an additional production capacity of 2.5 lakh cars) we will start next year. We have not decided when, but we will be looking at the market,” Ayukawa remarked.

He said that the two assembly lines having a capacity of five lakh cars per annum were currently functioning at 80-90 percent capacity. “We are making

Rs 150,000 crore of investments, including the three assembly lines and the engine plant in Gujarat,” the CEO said. Apart from three assembly lines for cars, Ayukawa said that the construction of the Rs 1,100-crore Lithium-ion battery plant — a joint venture between Suzuki Motor Corporation, Toshiba and Denso — within the SMG complex at Hansalpur was also on schedule.

“It is at the construction stage now and we will start operations of the plant next year,” Ayukawa said. Tomohiko Okada, who was present at the conclave, also reconfirmed that the battery plant at Hansalpur will be ready to be commissioned by 2020.

Maruti Suzuki is the biggest Japanese investor in Gujarat, which has 383 Japanese firms. Over 124 are in finance and insurance business and about 90 are in manufacturing, which includes the automobile sector.

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