Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Could the Fiat Palio go the way of the Daewoo Matiz? Is Fiat India going to close down its Kurla facility—where the Palio and Siena are made—next week as part of a restructuring of the loss-making Italian industrial giant?
The Turin-based company denied an Italian magazine report that said it would close a plant in India and trim truck-making facilities in Spain and Italy, but there was no failsafe assurance.
|
Matiz plans comeback on GM’s platform
|
| MUMBAI: General Motors, which has bought Daewoo Motors assets in Korea, is planning to roll out Daewoo’s small car Matiz from its Halol plant. The new Matiz will have a much powerful engine and is expected to be launched by this year-end. GM had not bought the Indian operations of Daewoo which is saddled with over Rs 3,000 crore of liabilities. The plant had closed down in October 2000 after its Korean parent was declared bankrupt. (ENS) |
“As far as Fiat Auto India operations are concerned, the company stresses that no decision has been taken,” a Fiat Auto spokesman told Reuters in Milan, Italy, on Friday. He gave no further details. Rumours about Fiat’s India plant closure were triggered by a report in an Italian financial magazine, Economy, which reported Fiat’s long-awaited turnaround plan was due to be unveiled on June 26. The closure of the India plant is part of recast exercise, the report said.
According to Reuters, an advance copy of the magazine article said that 120 of 700 administrative jobs at the Fiat auto unit would be cut.
“These are all rumours,” a Fiat India spokesman told The Indian Express. “Our headquarters has already issued a clarification on this (report). The production and sales here are going on as per schedule.”
Auto analysts say that there could be some truth in news reports about India plant closure. “It’s hard to guess (about the closure) but the good news is that the company’s sales are picking up after a long time,” says a Mumbai auto analyst. “It’s difficult to hazard a guess.”
Fiat dealers acknowledged the troubled state of the parent company but said these were rumours that floated around from time to time.
‘‘Only last month the company showed us a small car (to take on Santro) that they plan to launch next year,’’ a prominent Fiat dealer said on condition of anonymity. A new variant of the Palio is slated for launch in July. The company makes about 2,500 Palios and 400 Sienas in the Kurla plant every month. The plant—with a capacity to make 60,000 cars every year on three shifts—was bought from Premier Automobiles four years ago.
