The operations of Fiat India is unlikely to be affected by a massive restructuring plan announced on Thursday by its parent company in Italy, which involves cutting 12,300 jobs worldwide and closure of 12 factories, "mostly" overseas in the next two years.
"Our launch plan of new models is on schedule. Work at the Kurla (Mumbai) plant is going on normally. We do not plan to close it down," a company spokesman told PTI over phone from Mumbai.
Fiat SpA earlier on Thursday in Turin said it would cut 12,300 jobs worldwide and close factories at its truck and US farm-equipment businesses to tide over two successive years of losses.
The company said the factories would be "mostly" closed outside of Italy at tractor maker CNH Global NV, truckmaker IVECO SpA and its components units. It however, did not give details about the plant locations.
Recently, Fiat Auto had stated that India, Brazil, China and Turkey were its most important markets and that it would continue to increase its activities in these markets.
Fiat India makes the compact cars Palio and Uno, mid-size Siena, station wagon Siena Weekend and Adventure Diesel at the Mumbai plant, which has an annual capacity of about 50,000 cars.
The Indian unit has also been making losses due to sagging car sales following strong competition from rival carmakers like Maruti, Hyundai and Tata Engineering.
The Palio is however, currently witnessing a gradual increase in sales following the recent launch of a diesel version.
