Automotive Updates - 28th May 2014

• Tata Motors, India's largest automaker by revenue, said its domestic operations would likely not post a profit or would have "inadequate" profit for the fiscal year that ended in March, hurt by sluggish demand.Slowing economic activity, weak consumer sentiment, increasing competition and high interest rates impacted the company's performance, Tata Motors said in a notice to the stock exchange on Tuesday.

• Uttam Bose, who resigned as managing director, Hindustan Motors (HM) on May 9, has taken up the role of managing director of Hindustan Motors Finance Corporation Ltd (HMFCL), a wholly owned subsidiary of HM. Autocar Professional had, on May 10, reported that Bose will remain within the CK Birla Group and may take a new position at HMFCL, which owns the company’s Chennai car plant. Bose is also an additional director at Hindustan Motors, as announced by the company on May 10.

• The Gujarat Government has objected to the decision of Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) to hand over effective control of its proposed car plant at Hansalpur in Ahmedabad district to its Japanese parent company Suzuki Motor Corp (SMC) as it is in violation of the State Support Agreement (SSA) signed in June 2012.

• Royal Enfield which is owned by Eicher Motors has planned for an investment of around Rs. 600 crores in its motorcycle plants in the next two years. The money will be pumped in step by step in the two plants in the next couple of years. This move comes in because the demand has been normal but the supply is way too low. The Thiruvottiyur factory in Tamil Nadu is extremely small in size and cannot produce a substantial amount to keep waiting periods down for the British brand.

•  Automotive component maker Sundaram Brake Linings, part of the TVS group, Tuesday announced change of guard at its top management.According to the company, K. Mahesh resigned as managing director for personal reasons while he would continue as the company's chairman.

• Maruti-Suzuki’s first self-developed diesel engine will be a 792 cc unit, reports Gaadi.com. The engine, which is believed to be a two-cylinder unit, has been developed by Suzuki in Japan with inputs coming from Maruti engineers in India.

• Bohra Rubber Pvt Ltd (BRPL) and Hiroshima Kasei Ltd (HKL) Japan have entered into a technical collaboration for the manufacture of automotive cabin sealing systems. HKL will support BRPL in the design, development and execution of dynamic sealing solutions for the automotive industry.

• Auto component maker Bharat Forge today reported an over two-fold jump in standalone net profit at Rs 119 crore in the March quarter, driven by one-time gain of Rs 43.16 crore from sale of a land parcel. Total revenue grew 38 per cent to Rs 931 crore, it said. For the full fiscal, net profit rose 30.7 per cent to Rs 400 crore, while total revenue for FY14 logged 8 per cent growth to Rs 3,399 crore.
• image from indianautoblog.com