Mumbai: A last batch of 3,000-3,500 Bharat Stage IV-emission norm compliant vehicles of Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd (M&M)’s may be hit due to supply disruption following the coronavirus outbreak in China, a senior company executive told reporters in Mumbai on Tuesday.
“I don’t see any risk in the transition from BS IV to BS VI emission norms except for the impact of the coronavirus. We have one or two parts that are procured from China for our BS IV vehicles. These parts are now (coming in and are) in the quarantine process," said Pawan Goenka, managing director, M&M.
"I am hoping that it (supply) will open up in next week to 10 days and there won’t be any impact. But if it goes beyond that then we will have a challenge of 3,000 – 3,500 BS IV vehicles for which other parts are already in our inventory."
As manufacturing facilities have remained shut in China in an attempt to contain the spread of the coronavirus, which has been declared a global emergency by the World Health Organisation (WHO), automotive supply chains across major markets have been hit.
Industry experts have pointed out that in the globally integrated automotive supply chain, absence of any one component can lead to stoppage of vehicle assembly operations, hitting not only vehicle manufacturers but also other associated suppliers.
Goenka said some manufacturing plants in China are gradually resuming operations, but not in all regions and not in full capacity yet.
He said SsangYong’s plant in South Korea will be shut till 12 February because of the same problem of procuring parts from China.
“SsangYong will resume production from 13 February as some supplies have started coming in though not at full volumes yet. However, some of the areas, the lunar holidays (in China) are extended further. So it depends where your part is coming from," he added.
Goenka said production of Jawa motorcycles was also "significantly curtailed" due to non-availability of a component supplied by Chinese manufacturers.
“That part has started arriving now. So we will slowly ramp up (the bike production). However, the 3,000-3,500 BS IV vehicles that I talked about, we still don’t have any clarity when we will get full supplies," he reiterated.
