KARACHI: Pak Suzuki Motor Company (PSMC) will observe three non-production days (NPDs) in February, the company said in a notification issued on Thursday.

The company did not declare any reason for the NPDs but said production of automobile segment would remain closed on Feb 3, 4 and 10.

The PSMC did not observe any NPDs during the first of current fiscal year. But in January, it shut down production for four days to rationalise inventory.

The company on Thursday increased prices of Suzuki Cultus VXL and AGS models by Rs10,000 to Rs1,865,000 and Rs1,985,000 respectively. In its notice to authorised dealers, the company attributed the price hike to introduction of upgraded infotainment system in these models.

On Jan 1, Pak Suzuki had raised prices of different models excluding Cultus in the range of Rs49,000-90,000 despite decline in import costs owing to the exchange rate stability. One dollar now sells at Rs155 as against Rs164 in June 2019.

Depressed demand in auto sector also caused massive drop of 46 per cent in import of completely- and semi-knocked down kits in the first half of current fiscal year to $229 million from $426m in the same period last fiscal year.

Car sales of different models fell by 32-72pc in 1HFY20 owing to rising prices on account of imposition of federal excise duty, additional customs duty on import of raw material and volatile exchange rate while high interest rates of 13.25pc also discouraged new buyers.

Honda Atlas Cars Pakistan Limited had not observed any NPDs in January, while the company had worked only eight days in December 2019 as compared to seven in November because of unsold inventory and depressed sales. The company had earlier observed 16-18 NPDs in October while it had reduced working days to 11 in September as against 13 in August and 20 in July.

There were no NPDs at Indus Motor Company (IMC), the assembler of Toyota vehicles in December 2019 as against 4-5 during November last year. The IMC had shut down production for 15 days in September as against eight in July and 11-12 days in August.

The IMC plant had halved its production, operating only on single shift during the period between October, 2019 to January.

Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2020