Honda Motorcycle predicts 50% sales dip
India's leading gear-less scooter maker Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI) is struggling with labour problem at its Manesar plant in Haryana and the firm predicts that this will cause the production to slide roughly by 50% this month.
HMSI had been producing over a lakh motorcycles and scooters earlier but now it feel that it will barely reach the 50,000 unit mark in October and the downward descend may continue in the coming months if a solution is not found for the labour issue. Honda's other Indian arm - Hero Honda has been dominating the market and registered over four lakh unit of two-wheeler sales in September and hopes to maintain the positive growth.
The over-all two-wheeler sales in India is robust due to the festive season and attractive loan offers and is expected to cross the 9 lakh unit mark in the month of September 2009. However, HMSI due to its labour issue is losing out on this opportunity.
The Manesar region is facing severe labour problems at other plants located in the area. Thankfully , the Honda plant has not witnessed any violent protests but the pace of production has been reduced as the workers seek higher wages. This will further increase the waiting period for the firm's flagship scooter - Activa.
[Via: BIKE]
Two Wheeler Registration Banned in Madhya Pradesh
The registration of the two-wheelers has been banned in Madhya Pradesh. There has been an ongoing dispute relating to the positioning of the handgrip on the vehicle. The existing positioning of the handgrip is above the tail light. The Madhya Pradesh High Court ruled that it should be placed between the driver and the pillion rider. To make the matters worse, it also banned the sale of two-wheelers if they did not conform to the ruling.
Two wheeler's association including two of the major two-wheeler manufacturers then rushed to the Supreme Court to obtain a stay challenging the verdict and complaining of judiciary over-stretching its public interest jurisdiction. A bench comprising of two chief justices from Supreme Court stayed the order till 19th December when the appeal would be heard in detail.
Madhya Pradesh government has stopped registration of the two-wheeler in the state till a final verdict is reached on the issue. "We have stopped the registration of two-wheelers in the state after the HC direction to ensure that two-wheelers have in-built protection system for pillion riders as per the rule 123 of the Central Motor Vehicle Act 1989.
The process of registration of two-wheelers will resume after we find that the rule for the protection of pillion riders has been adhered," Deputy Transport Commissioner (Enforcement), Upendra Jain said. "We have categorically told the dealers not to sell their products till the anomalies in connection with pillion riders protection was taken care of," he added.
[Via: cartradeindia]
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