The whole world is shutting down to stop the Coronavirus from spreading even further. Automotive industries aren’t spared either. Last week, the news of automotive manufacturers shutting down their plants just kept pouring in. Renault Nissan Automotive India Pvt. Ltd. too announced the shutdown of their manufacturing plant at Oragadam, Chennai from March 24, 2020, until further notice. In an official statement, the company said, “We will continue to take all the necessary steps to safeguard the well-being and health of our employees, partners and community and will closely monitor the situation.”
It would take some time for the industries to get back on track even after the shutdown is lifted off. This pandemic outbreak has caused a slump in every business industry, not sparing the automotive industry either. Talking about the Indian scenario, this situation is worsening the slowdown even more. Manufacturers were given a circular to clear their BS4 stocks before April 1 but because of the lockdown, it’s expected that it won’t be happening. Indian Automotive industry, as we all know, is going through a slowdown from a very long time.
Though it’s a good thing that manufacturers aren’t firing their employees as of yet to deal with the economic crisis. Nissan’s Oragadam plant has around 7,500 employees and now it’s shut off for the time to come. Tamil Nadu has reported 9 positive cases for COVID-19 of which one person has already recovered. The state government has also imposed section 144 in the state.
While we are locked down in our homes, the urge of going out gets stronger every day. But we have to stay strong and stay inside because that’s the right thing to do according to the current situation. In the meantime, we just hope that the manufacturing plants start production again so that we can see those new vehicles rolling on the streets again. It’s a hard time but we have to stay together as a community so that we can get past this and get to witness those sunsets again.