Lockout in Maruti unit costing Rs 90 cr/day:Assocham

Lockout in the Manesar unit of Maruti Suzuki is costing the company over Rs 90 crore per day, industry body Assocham today claimed. It also said the lockout is affecting over 650 units and has threatened closure of many ancillaries in the 60 km Gurgaon-Manesar-Dharuhera belt employing nearly one million workers. About 270 auto component vendors, too, are facing losses, it said.

However, according to Maruti Suzuki, the plant rolls out about 1,600 units per day and in terms of value, the daily loss to the company is about Rs 70 crore (excluding excise). "...There are very significant direct employment and production losses arising out of the lockout," Assocham secretary general D S Rawat said, adding a prolonged shut down would drive component supplier from that region to go out of business permanently.

Particularly, the SME sector units would face the severe threat of closing down and go out of business, he said. As orders have been down drastically, firms are curtailing output as Maruti is the biggest customer for all component makers of the Gurgaon-Manesar industrial belt," it said, adding Maruti consumes about one-third of the total production of Rs 20,000 crore by the Indian auto component manufacturers.

Apart from component suppliers, it said, transporters, manpower suppliers and logistics companies are also getting affected. The company had declared a lockout at its Manesar plant after the July 18 violence in which a senior executive was killed and several others were injured.

Commenting about investment climate in Haryana, it said that about 3.3% of total investments announced by both public and private sectors in India as on June have gone into the state. The state has attracted Rs 457,490 crore investments out of a total of Rs 13,959,539 crore announced in India, it said.