Pak Suzuki Motor Company (PSMC) has extended its current round of non-production days (NPDs) due to an inventory shortage.
As per the recent notification, the company has furthered its assembly operations suspension up to July 15. This accumulates to a non-production period of 24 days, from June 22 to July 15.
The official notice is as follows:
Suzuki, which is Pakistan’s largest carmaker by production and sales, has sustained heavy blows. Earlier this month, due to a lack of inventory, the company suspended motorcycle assembly for 5 days — from June 12 to June 16.
Later it shut down both, car and bike assembly from June 22 to July 8, which has now been extended to July 15.
In the first week of June, Suzuki sent a letter to Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, bringing the abysmal state of the car industry to his attention, stating:
Here, we would like to bring to kind notice that PSMC is going through the very worst of times in its history of about 40 years. The company has already suffered huge losses of Rs. 12.9 billion in the first quarter of the current year due to current economic uncertainties. The company is also observing many “No Production Days” every month throughout the year. In addition to this, our dealers and vendors are also suffering very badly due to the current economic and business situation, as some of them are already closed and many more are on the bring of closure.
As per recent news, the government has increased tax rates on all locally assembled cars, without offering any relaxation in the import restrictions. With the current situation, the auto industry’s future indeed seems bleak.
Unfortunately with present prices and lower quality Suzuki will not able sell units even if they re open the plant.