Bajaj, Honda shut plants for maintenance

The country's two biggest two-wheeler makers Hero Honda Motor Ltd and Bajaj Auto Ltd have shut down their plants this week for maintenance, company executives said.

Bajaj Auto Ltd is undertaking a five-day maintenance shutdown across all its manufacturing plants starting today and production will resume on January 2.

Hero Honda Motor Ltd closed its manufacturing plants in Gurgaon and Dharuhera in Haryana on December 25 and produced is slated to restart January 2.

Both plants together are capable of churning out 3.9 million bikes per year. A Hero Honda executive described it as a routine preventive maintenance exercise that is undertaken every six months.

Shares of Hero Honda, which were trading at Rs 702, fell 0.65 per cent (or Rs 4.60) to close at 699.45 on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Friday. Bajaj Auto shares, however, lost 2.3 per cent (or Rs 61.50) to close at Rs 2,610.95.

The company's plants are located in Akurdi, Waluj, and Chakan in Maharashtra, and Pant Nagar in Uttarakhand. Bajaj Auto recently stopped operations at its Akurdi facility as the plant was not commercially viable.

Analysts said the shares were trading low on expectation of a slowdown in December sales.