Jamshedpur steel industries facing tough times, 30 companies on the verge of closing down

Jamshedpur, particularly famous for being the home to several steel companies in the country, is going through a tough time. There are reports of about 30 steel companies based in Jamshedpur on the verge of being shut down, while a dozen of companies have already put their shutters down from Thursday.

The Adityapur Industrial Area (AIA) is one of the companies which is hit hard and is undergoing a bad phase. Moreover, the due to the recession in the automobile sector, Tata Motors is also being hit hard and this is for the fourth time in a row that the company is undergoing a block closure since last month. The company is announced to be shut from Thursday to Saturday, followed by the Sunday which is a holiday. Not only this, the Tata Motors has also asked its over 1000 Y-6 (temporary) workers to go for separation of 12 days (asked to sit in house). The permanent employees are asked to rejoin duty on August 5 and the Y-6 workers are asked to rejoin on August 12.

Inder Agrawal, president of Aditaypur Small Industries Association said, “Recession in auto sector is nothing new...It comes every two-three years. I met Tata Motors Plant Head today who said that the company might have to take another block closure of 3-4 days after which things would normalise. We expect things to be back on track after September. The company has got 40% less orders for its vehicles this July compared to corresponding month last year. Some of our companies are working in limited capacity while some have opted for maintenance work.”

The visibly slow market demands have compelled the Tata Motors to go for block closures. This is to be noted that for the last two months, Tata Motors has been only for 15 days per month. This has been conveyed by the union that the company has to meet orders for only a week’s production in August and hence, there is limited work for about 1000 auto-ancillaries in Tata Motors in AIA.

Also read: Tata Motors’ December domestic sales down 8%