Now, Ashok Leyland declares no-working day in 5 factories

Mumbai: Ashok Leyland on Monday declared a 'no-working day' for five of its factories across India, days after it reported a sharp drop of 47 per cent in its sales for August.

The commercial vehicle major said that "due to weak demand for our products" the company will see "non-working days" at various plant "locations during September 2019".

At Ennore in Chennai, the number of non-working days would be 16, at Hosur 1, 2, CPPS it would be five while at Alwar, Rajasthan it would be 10. At Bhandara, Maharashtra the number of non-working days will be 10, while for Pantnagar in UP, it will be 18.

In a statement issued earlier, the company said that it sold a total of 9,231 units in August, down from 17,386 units sold during the corresponding month in 2018.

Meanwhile, the ongoing consumption slowdown that has gripped the Indian economy dragged down the automobile industry August sales to their lowest level since 1997-98, data showed on Monday.

Data furnished by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), showed that total sales of the Indian automobile sector declined by 23.55 per cent in August to 1,821,490 units, from 2,382,436 units sold during the corresponding month of the previous year.

This is the steepest fall in overall vehicle sales in the country since SIAM started recording wholesale vehicle sales data in 1997-98.

Passenger car sales in the month under consideration plunged by 41.09 per cent to 115,957 units, against 196,847 units sold in August 2018.

In the commercial vehicle segment, sales were down by 38.71 per cent to 51,897 units.

The sale of three-wheelers in August declined by 6.93 per cent to 58,818 units.

In the case of two-wheelers, which include scooters, motorcycles and mopeds, the sale edged lower by 22.24 per cent to 1,514,196 units.