• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager
• BL Club
• Smartbuy
• Books
• Gallery

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth
• Events 2007

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Our Bureau

Mumbai, June 1 General Motors India has reiterated that operations here will continue as normal and that it remains unaffected by its American parent’s bankruptcy.

While indicating that the Indian operations are not part of the US filing for Chapter 11, the company has stated that dealers, warranty and customer support services will not be impacted.

“We are committed to ensuring that our customers continue to receive a top-notch sales, service, spare parts and warranty coverage experience. Our dealers will also continue to receive all our carlines, while our suppliers will continue to work with us to supply parts and components,” said Mr Karl Slym, President and Managing Director, GM India, in a statement issued here on Monday.

The company was among the earlier entrants to India in the early 1990s along with Peugeot and Daewoo which are history today.

Its Opel brand caught the fancy of the market initially but competition from the Koreans and Japanese constantly had GM on the backfoot.

It was only in the turn of the century, after the acquisition of Daewoo and the creation of GM-DAT (GM Daewoo Auto Technologies) headquartered in South Korea that GM India got its act together.

By this time, the Opel phase had come to an end and it was now the turn of the Chevrolet badge to take over.

Models from the GM Daewoo stable like the Optra (Daewoo Nubira) or Aveo (based on the Kalos platform) quickly reflected the intent of a company that was keen to make up for lost time.

Its biggest asset was of course the resurrected Matiz, rechristened the Spark with a bigger engine.

By this time, GM had also opted for a second plant near Pune, which is now going to be home to the M200 (Chevrolet Beat) scheduled to debut towards the end of this fiscal.

Further, the company has decided to use India as a critical base for its engines which means that exports could be conceived from here to China, Eastern Europe and Asean.

As observers say, GM Daewoo has been the best piece of news to GM as a growth driver not only in India but other parts of the Asia-Pacific region.

Little wonder, therefore, that it is not too ruffled by its parent company’s crisis. There is some concern though on GM Daewoo itself which, according to recent reports, could face a challenge in some Asian markets hit by the slowdown.

Thus far, India and China have been the exceptions to the rule.

T. Murrali reports from Chennai: Indian suppliers to General Motors say that the bankruptcy issue could actually present itself as an opportunity when the company begins to restructure operations.

“Cost-cutting and effective sourcing will be the need of the hour and this is when the core competence of the Indian component industry will be put to the test. We are confident of building on this opportunity,” a section of suppliers told Business Line.

Incidentally, GM’s operations in Mexico are perceived to be better off than those in Canada and the US at least from Indian vendors’ point of view.

“Mexico accounts for approximately 10 per cent of business from GM in North America which is not all that bad,” one of them said.

Among the prominent suppliers to GM are Sundram Fasteners, Rico Auto, Bharat Forge, Amtek Auto and Bill Forge.

More Stories on : Cars | Outlook | Sick Units

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Copyright © 2009, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line