• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager
• BL Club
• Smartbuy

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth
• Events 2007

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

T. Murrali

Chennai, Oct. 29 Ashok Leyland is contemplating reducing the number of working days “by one or two days a week” so as to match its inventory to the current demand of commercial vehicle industry.

“We are not planning for lay-offs. However, we are working on a plan to reduce one or two working days in a week.

“There could be some cut in wages for these days and it will be worked out in consultation with the union officials,” highly placed sources in the company have told Business Line.

Ashok Leyland expects to finalise the plan by Monday. Sources said that the cut in working days was not only because of the problem of power shortage in Tamil Nadu, (where the company has three of its five plants), but also due to the poor offtake of trucks in the market.

Increasing cost of ownership caused by several factors such as high cost of finance has resulted in a slowdown in automobile sales since April.

Besides the slack demand, increase in input costs has also forced vehicle manufacturers to suffer a reduction in margins.

However, beyond a point, the vehicle manufacturers are not able to utilise the capacity fully, and hence, the cut in working days, sources explained.

According to CRISIL, the demand for medium and heavy commercial vehicles will continue to decline by 5 per cent to 10 per cent in 2008-09.

More Stories on : HCV/LCV/Tractors | Human Resources | Financial Markets

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line