By IANS,
Bhubaneswar : Birla Tyres, a unit of the BK Birla Group company Kesoram Industries, will close down its Orissa plant temporarily for the third time in as many months from Feb 16 to Feb 28 on account of falling sales, a company official said Friday.
The unit had shut down operations for about 15 days in December and 13 days last month. It had resumed production Feb 1.
“There is no sign of improvement in the market. The plant will be closed again from February 16,” a senior plant official told IANS over phone on condition of anonymity because he is not authorised to speak to the media.
“It will resume production on March 1. We have already notified all the 10 workers unions and the local administration,” the official said, adding that employees will not be paid during the shutdown.
The unit employs around 2,200 people. Set up to manufacture automobile tyres, tubes and flaps in Balasore district, some 200 km from here, the unit started commercial production in March 1992.
According to the company, the unit has an installed capacity of 1.50 million tyres, tubes and flaps per year. Approximately, 30 percent of its production is exported to 43 countries.