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SEPTEMBER - 2019

                        A Report from the Trenches on Peenya Industrial Area

            The downturn in the auto industry has                getting picked up by the customer they
            hit  national  –  and  international  –              were meant for. As Maruti's cars remain
            headlines  in  the  pink  press.  And  the           unsold, it is not making as many of them
            headlines  for  once  show  that  Peenya             as before. And it doesn't buy the diesel
            Industrial  Area,  one  of  the  world's             engines it needs from Bosch. And Bosch
            biggest industrial zones, has seen large-            doesn't  need  the  fuel  injection  pump
            scale shutdowns and lay-offs, which in               parts that the CNC Company supplies.
            itself is a consequence of auto ancillary
            units hit hard by slump in sales. Curated            The cascading effect has hurt thousands
            below  are  several  such  instances                 of  small  and  medium  enterprises  that
            reported in the media, which reveal the              line the roads of the Peenya Industrial
            trials  and  tribulations  of  the  small            Estate.
            entrepreneurs  in  the  auto  sector  in
            particular operating in Peenya Industrial            In good times earlier, the factory foremen
            Area:                                                used  to  take  pride  in  the  fact  that  the
                                                                 shop floor used to be so busy that there
            A  leading  auto  CNC  Centre  in  Peenya            was no place to even walk around. But
            houses a mammoth shed with a hundred                 now, the emptiness is disturbing.
            and  twenty  machines.  But  of  these,  a
            growing  number  of  the  machines  have             Stocks used to be lifted and ferried to
            now been reportedly shut.                            customers within three days at best, but
                                                                 now  the  components  are  preserved  in
            Operating  successfully  now  for  over  a           oil-filled trays to prevent rusting, as they
            decade, it is now working on only 18 out             are  already  piled  up  for  over  three
            of the 120 machines!  Another 102 of the             weeks.
            machines, used to make components for
            diesel engines, are idling.                          From Bad to Worse...

                                                                 Another  auto  ancillary  unit  in  Peenya
            These  components  are  usually  sent  to
            Bosch - which then supplies the engines              invested in machines to shift from BS 3
            to Maruti and Mahindra.                              to BS 4 just two years back. Now, with
                                                                 the  changing  requirements,  nobody  is
            Until May, the CNC company employed                  buying  those  vehicles  any  longer.
            three shifts of workers through the week.            Everyone is waiting for April next year.
            Two hundred of the 320 workers have
            been 'let go' between July and August, as            Besides,  the  move  to  have  electric
            stocks started piling up and order books             vehicles as the norm for two-wheelers in
            remained  empty.    And  those  who                  five years has put people off purchases
            continue  to  work  in  the  company  are            further.
            wondering  if  they  will  also  receive  the        In  yet  another  example,  another
            pink slip and then what?
                                                                 successful entrepreneur with 24 years of
                                                                 experience has closed down one of his
            Ever since their order books dried up,
            this CNC Company – like many others                  two plants that supplied as many as 200
            similar to it - realised that it was already         components  to  Ashok  Leyland,
            over-loaded  with  stocks  that  were  not           including  many  for  their  defence
                                                                 vehicles.



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