JLR USING SUITCASES TO SHIP PARTS, SUPPLY CRISIS ‘CRITICAL’

NEW DELHI: Tata Motors-owned Jaguar Land Rover has flown in auto parts in suitcases as the effects of coronavirus take a toll on the luxury carmaker's supply chains in coronavirus-hit China.The company on Tuesday warned that its production schedules in the UK as well as India are under strain due to its supply chains in China, known as 'the world's factory'.

JLR CEO Ralf Speth said the company has enough supplies to ensure production for the next two weeks, but from the third week onwards it remains risky and could even mean plant closures.

"We have flown parts in suitcases just to make sure we have all the parts but for the third week, we still have parts missing," said Speth.

JLR is the UK's biggest carmaker with three factories across the country that produce nearly 400,000 vehicles a year.

Tata Motors CEO and MD Guenter Butschek, said the same scenario was playing out in the Tata Group firm's Indian base. In India they have been "tracking and tracing" the situation on a very microscopic level to modify production strategy as things develop, Butschek said. "Everything mentioned by Ralf is not just an issue for Jaguar Land Rover. Although we have all of our operations domestically located in India, we are pretty much in the same boat," he said.

"In particular, the automotive industry is largely dependent on its global supply network," he said. He admitted that the supply crisis has come at a "critical" period for the company.