India strike woes hit Maruti sales
Employees of Maruti Suzuki shout slogans against the management at the Maruti Suzuki plant in Manesar on the outskirts of New Delhi on October 13, 2011. Manesar, which employs 2,000 workers, normally produces up to 1,200 of Maruti’s top-selling Swift and A-Star hatchbacks and SX4 sedans daily.
Continuing labor woes hit the sales numbers of India's largest car maker, Maruti Suzuki, in October, the Economic Times reports.
On Tuesday, the company copped to a 52% drop in sales for October, during which it suffered a production loss of some 40,000 vehicles due to a strike at its Manesar, Haryana, factory, the paper said.
The company expects car production at its Manesar plant to reach normal levels only by the end of December this year.
The 14-day-long strike at the plant, which caused an estimated loss of more than $140 million, was called off following a tripartite agreement that reinstated 64 dismissed permanent workers and took back 1,200 casual workers. However, 30 permanent workers remain suspended.
Last week, Maruti posted a 60 percent fall in net profit for the quarter ended Sept. 30, with earnings of around $48 million, mainly due to production losses at Manesar because of the labor unrest and foreign exchange losses, the Economic Times said.
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