Automakers halt production in India due to coronavirus

India’s biggest automaker Maruti Suzuki India and peers including Mahindra & Mahindra, Mercedes-Benz and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) said on Sunday they will halt car production in the country due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The move comes after automakers shut plants last week in Europe, the United States, Canada and Mexico as the global death toll from coronavirus exceeded 13,000.

Sport-utility vehicle maker Mahindra & Mahindra said it aims to start making ventilators for coronavirus patients at its manufacturing plants, mirroring similar efforts by other automakers including Ferrari and Fiat.

At least 341 people have so far contracted the disease in India and five deaths have been reported in country, prompting the government to suspend most train and metro services nationwide and order the closure of shops in several states until March 31.

Maruti, which builds one in every two cars sold in India, said it would immediately shut production and office operations at its facilities in the northern state of Haryana.

“The duration of this shutdown will depend upon government policy,” Maruti, which is majority owned by Japan’s Suzuki Motor Corp, said in a statement on Sunday.

The western state of Maharashtra, which has recorded the highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country, is home to one of India’s biggest auto hubs - Pune, where several car makers are set to halt production indefinitely or until March 31.

Mahindra has stopped manufacturing at one of its plants in Maharashtra and will suspend work at two others from Monday, it said in a statement.

Anand Mahindra, group company chairman, said on Twitter that the company will immediately begin work on how it can make ventilators at its plants. “A lockdown over the next few weeks will help flatten the curve and moderate the peak pressure on medical care,” Mahindra said, adding that it will offer its holiday resorts as temporary care facilities and help the government in building such centres.

Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz and Fiat as well as bike maker Bajaj Auto all said they will halt production at their Pune plants until March 31. Fiat said it will not cut jobs and will continue to pay salaries of all its employees.

India’s top-selling bike maker Hero MotoCorp Ltd said on Sunday it has stopped manufacturing at all its plants in India, Bangladesh and Colombia.

Indian carmaker Tata Motors Ltd said on Friday it was rapidly scaling down activity at its car factory in Maharashtra and was preparing to close it if concerns about coronavirus deepen.

Meanwhile Volkswagen AG’s India unit said on Sunday it has stopped production at its facility in Pune for three weeks as part of an ongoing business transition and is ensuring the safety of its employees. Meanwhile, Toyota Motor Corp on Sunday said it would suspend production on one of its vehicle production lines at a plant near its headquarters in Japan through Wednesday, after a second plant worker tested positive for the COVID-19 virus.

In a statement, the Japanese automaker said another employee at its Takaoka plant in Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture, tested positive for the virus, after it announced its first case of infection at the plant on Thursday. Toyota said the two employees had worked in close proximity to each other, and that it had asked a total of 33 employees at the site who had come into contact with the two workers to remain at home.

We are keen to do whatever we can to help the government and the country at this time and will look to provide any practical help we can,” Rolls-Royce said in a statement.

Although the government can steer factories to overcome shortages, makers of heavy goods such as cars and trucks can’t just flip a switch and produce something else. It would be difficult to get ventilator or even surgical mask designs, line up parts supplies and train workers to make them in a short period, said Jorge Alvarado, a professor in the Engineering Technology and Industrial Distribution Department at Texas A&M University. And auto plants generally aren’t clean enough to make medical equipment.

Companies also would have to find mask or ventilator manufacturers willing to share knowledge, expertise and even factory workers to transfer production elsewhere, Alvarado said. During World War II, AUTOMAKERS were more easily able to shift to making tanks and planes because they are close relatives to cars and trucks, Alvarado said. Auto factory equipment such as robots and assembly lines aren’t really compatible with smaller items such as ventilators, he said.

Agencies