Covid-19 hits Tata Motors’ sales in Europe
INDIA’S Tata Motors on Monday (15) reported a loss of $1.3 billion (£1.14bn) for the first three months of this year as sales in its key markets of China and Europe were hit by the pandemic.
The Mumbai-headquartered firm had just returned to the black in the previous quarter amid Chinese demand for its British luxury brands Jaguar and Land Rover.
The `98.94 billion ($1.3bn) net loss for the January-March quarter followed a net profit of `11.17bn for the same period last year.
“The auto industry faced strong headwinds in FY20 amid a slowing economy due to multiple factors... all leading to weak consumer sentiments and subdued demand across segments,” Tata Motors chief executive Guenter Butschek said in a statement.
“Disruption in the supply chain induced by the pandemic and the nationwide lockdown in mid-March 2020 added to the problems.”
The company forecast a weak April-June – the first quarter of the 2021 financial year – which coincided with widespread virus lockdowns across its Europe, UK and Chinese markets. But it expects a gradual recovery of sales and improved cash flows for rest of the year.
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) said that it planned to cut more than 1,000 contractagency jobs in the UK amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“Through its ongoing transformation programme, Jaguar Land Rover is taking action to optimise performance and achieve further operational efficiencies to enable sustainable growth and safeguard the long-term success of our business,” a company statement said.
“Against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic, the company has taken the difficult decision to reduce the number of contract-agency employees in its manufacturing plants over the coming months,” it added.
The jobs are expected to be cut from across the business’ UK manufacturing sites, a process that will begin at the end of July and last through the year.
“It is another devastating blow for our auto sector and the communities that rely on them for jobs,” the Unite trade union said.
“We urge the government to get on with delivering the urgently needed sector support package, as other countries such as France and Germany have done, so that we can stem the tide of redundancies,” it added.