Suzuki likely to observe non-production days in August

Company awaiting final discussion with State Bank before making a decision

LAHORE: Pak Suzuki Motor Company (PSMC) may observe non-production days (NPDs) next month. Profit has been able to confirm this from Shafiq Shaikh, Head of Public Relations at PSMC. “Presently commercial banks are not opening the letters of credit (LCs) and documents against payments (DPs) for automobile CKDs. Unavailability of CKDs and related raw material may result in plant shut down in August 2022”, Shaikh said.   

Shaikh says that Suzuki was able to avert NPDs in July, and that it aims to deliver orders booked till June. However, a continuation of the policy is dependent on normalization of LCs and DPs in their upcoming talks with the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). 

This comes days after Asghar Ali Jamali, Chief Executive at Toyota Indus Motor Company (IMC) told Profit that IMC will offer customers the option of a refund or an additional three month waiting period.

Profit had reported earlier on how the State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) extended mandate over letters of credit for ckd imports had created panic amidst the automobile market. 

Profit had inquired with local Suzuki dealerships about the wait times on various Suzuki models to understand the gravity of the delays and discovered the following: 

August may be an ominous month for the automotive industry. Alongside PSCMs’ possible NPDs, there are speculations that IMC will also observe NPDs in the first half of the month for two weeks. It is unknown whether Honda will join the other two members of the Big 3 in their possible decision, and whether this becomes the industry norm for August. 

All of this is perhaps indicative of the end of the Pakistani automotive industry’s current renaissance.

Daniyal Ahmad
Daniyal Ahmad
The author is a member of the staff, and covers the automobile, energy and advertising insdusties as a sector analyst. He can be reached at [email protected]

2 COMMENTS

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