Hero Moto puts brakes

While the Maharashtra Govt is not using the word ‘lockdown’ calling it ‘fresh curbs’ imposed yesterday, Hero Moto, on Tuesday evening itself that it was temporarily shutting down.

It has halted operations temporarily at all of its manufacturing facilities across the country, including its Global Parts Center (GPC), in view of the ongoing escalation in the spread of Covid-19 across the country.

The company said that it will use this shut-down to carry out necessary maintenance work in the manufacturing plants and reiterated that it will not impact the company’s ability to meet the demand, which has been impacted due to localized shut-downs in many states and production loss will be compensated during the remainder of the quarter.

All plants will resume normal operations post this short shutdown period. Each plant and GPC will remain shut for four days, in a staggered manner between April 22 – May 1.

The company had a good news to share though – it has got into a partnership with Gogoro to accelerate the shift to sustainable electric mobility in India. The companies will establish a battery swapping joint venture to bring Gogoro’s industry leading battery swapping platform to India and will collaborate on electric vehicle development to bring Herobranded, powered by Gogoro Network vehicles to market.

Though the stock price is in the red, it seems more like a half-hearted, confused trade. The stock opened 2.5% lower at Rs.2751 but soon buying at these levels, recouped the price and it is now trading at Rs.2808 levels, down some 0.5%.