Auto major Mahindra & Mahindra today said it will not hold back its capex, including the Rs 4,000-crore investment for setting up a greenfield plant at Chakan in Maharashtra, notwithstanding the slowdown that the automotive industry is going through.
"We are not reviewing any of our projects. That means we are not holding any of our product plans and whatever capex is associated with that is happening," M&M Chief Operations Officer (Automotive Sector) Rajesh Jejurikar told reporters here.
He, however, said "whatever optimisation can happen without impacting the scope of the project, obviously we are attempting to do that".
Last March, M&M had announced scaling up investments at Chakan for a greenfield medium and heavy commercial vehicles plant to Rs 4,000 crore, with an additional Rs 1,500 crore to the initially earmarked amount of Rs 2,500 crore.
The slowdown in auto industry had forced players like Nissan and Honda to hold back investments. While Nissan, which along with Renault announced Rs 4,000-crore investment in Chennai, is going only for single line production, Honda had said it would hold back further investments in its second plant at Tapukara in Rajasthan, where it has invested Rs 600 crore so far.
Jejurikar said M&M is also not shutting down its plants at the moment and the company would take appropriate actions according to demand.
"We are not closing our plants as of now," he said, adding the company is monitoring the market closely as sales tend to pick up after mid-January due to various festivals.