Cars have started to roll out of Marui Suzuki’s plant in Manesar for the first time since striking workers vacated following a court order.
The company produced its first 350 cars on Tuesday after production stopped on the evening of 7 October, when workers staged a sit-in strike, the Hindustan Times noted.
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The Gurgaon plant resumed production on Monday with 1,700 cars and built 1,750 on Tuesday.
On Monday, the weld and press shops restarted at Manesar.
Assembly operations started on Tuesday with 180 workers who were from among those not participating in the strike.
According to company officials, partial operations also commenced at Suzuki Powertrain India Limited (SPIL) which makes diesel engines and transmissions.
The company built 480 new Swift hatchbacks in Gurgaon as well Manesar plants on Tuesday.
Over 100,000 customers have placed orders for Swift cars and the company is worried some might defect to rivals such as Hyundai.
Planned talks between company management and striking workers did not take place on Tuesday as the workers refused to attend.
Maruti Suzuki has lost revenue of INR15bn since 29 August due to labour unrest, chairman RC Bhargava told Dow Jones.
“Our production has suffered because of the labour issues. We have made 50,000 fewer cars so far because of the unrest.”
Other reports have said Maruti is likely to choose Gujarat state for its planned 2m unit plant, bigger than Gurgaon and Manesar combined in Haryana state.
