US carmaker General Motors has put on hold its plan to start production in third shift at the Halol plant in Gujarat, owing to 'sluggish' market conditions in India, a top company official said here today.
"We had a plan to go in for a third shift, but that has been kept on hold because of a sluggish market. General Motors sales, which almost grew at 60% last year as compared to 2009, expects to clock growth of 30% this year," company Vice-President P Balendran told reporters here.
"Last year while the car industry grew at 30%, GM grew at 59.9% as compared to 2009. This year the car industry was expected to grow at 18% but that has already been revised to 12-14%," he said.
"The demand for cars in India would not pick up before the festival season," he observed.
The company currently operates in two shifts at the Halol plant manufacturing around 190 units per day. It had earlier announced its aim to sell 1.5 lakh units this year as compared to 1.1 lakh units in last year.
"Within next two years, we intend to introduce six new products in India. Out of the six Beat diesel has already been launched, second would be Travera Euro IV which shall be manufactured at Halol," Balendran said.
GM is increasing the capacity of Halol plant from the current 85,000 units to 1.10 lakh units at an investment of $250 million.
The company is expanding the capacity to roll out its Chinese partner SAIC's commercial vehicles (CVs) in India. The first of a series of five vehicles will be launched during the Auto Expo in the National Capital in January, 2012.
