Showing posts with label Nissan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nissan. Show all posts

Friday, August 28, 2009

Will Nissan unit shift from UK to Chennai lead to job losses?

Japanese major Nissan has decided to shift the entire production of its small car Micra from the UK and relocate it to India. After production of the Micra begins here, Nissan plans to manufacture four more models in India, involving a total investment of over Rs 2,000 crore.

The move underlines the rush among automakers to rationalise production costs and move to locations that offer the best value and quality. “We have decided to shift the production of the Micra compact car from our UK plant and manufacture it in India at our upcoming factory at Oragadam, near Chennai,” Nissan India MD and CEO Kiminobu Tokuyama told TOI here.

The company’s Chennai plant will start production from May next year, and the export markets would be catered to from autumn, Tokuyama said. Nissan, he said, plans to meet Micra’s requirements for the entire European region as well as some other markets like Middle-East from the Chennai plant. “We plan to initially start with export volumes of 1.1 lakh units, which would be gradually scaled up to 1.8 lakh units as demand goes up,” Tokuyama said. But what has prompted the company to take such a step, uprooting manufacturing presence from an established base and shifting to an all-new location. “There are many benefits to count in India, and these include a high-quality vendor base that is also cost effectiveness, leading to globally-competitive pricing,” Tokuyama said. Also, the technological skills in India are of a high quality, he added.

Nissan’s move points to the growing importance of India in small car manufacturing, which was initiated by the Government by way of lower manufacturing tax (excise duty) on them. The rising scale of small car production in India also sweetens the deal in favour of the country as component makers have improved on quality and scale, making them a safe and a reliable bet. Lower wages in the market, and relatively high engineering skills, is another big advantage that attracts companies.

Times of India/Agencies

Monday, May 4, 2009

Will major clients continue to stay with Satyam?

In a news that could bring cheer to Satyam employees, three of their big clients Nestle, Nissan and CIBA who were on wait and watch mode have assured to continue business with the firm.

"Clients such as Nestle and Nissan has already expressed their confidence in the company and had assured us that they will continue with us," an official privy to the development said. Nestle have also given some additional business to the Satyam last month, the person added further.

One of the multi-million dollar SAP client of Satyam, Nestle, which was earlier keeping a tab on the developments. Analysts had feared that post the acquisition of the firm by Tech Mahindra clients of Satyam who were sitting on the fence would jump to other vendors.

However, post the acquisition some of the companies had expressed confidence in the entity and pledged to continue business with them. Auto major Nissan for whom Satyam provides application management had also said that they would continue business with the firm. The company has also got an endorsement from another SAP client CIBA.

Moreover, United Kingdom, Switzerland and Germany who have earlier imposed some strict norms on Satyam employees for getting Visa have eased them. Post Satyam crisis, employees of Satyam were asked to be present in person and appear for visa interviews.

However, now they have eased the norms and the employees need not be present for the interview in person. Satyam Computers plunged into crisis after its founder B Ramalinga Raju in January admitted to have cooked the books of the company for year.

In April, information technology firm Tech Mahindra announced to acquire a 51 per cent stake in the beleaguered firm for Rs 2,900 crore. Earlier, the government-appointed chairman of Satyam Kiran Karnik had said that though some clients have left the company but at the same time Satyam have got some new work as well.

Agencies

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Satyam Continues To Lose Major Customers

Satyam Computer Services is on a 'losing spree', having so far lost outsourcing contracts from large customers to rivals such as IBM Corp., TCS, Infosys Technologies and Wipro Ltd. Now, a US property and casualty insurer is seeking to replace its outsourcing contract with Satyam.

US based Selective Insurance Co., which has reportedly outsourced about a quarter of its IT staffing requirements to Satyam, is said to be looking for alternate arrangement in light of Satyam latest woes.

In papers filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last month, Selective is quoted to have said: "We believe we would be able to manage an efficient transition to a new vendor and not experience a significant negative impact to our operations in the event that we no longer retain Satyam in their current capacity due to the financial issues they are currently experiencing."

Satyam chairman Ramalinga Raju on January 7 admitted falsifying the company's cash position by as much as $1 billion while overstating quarterly earnings and revenue by up to 28%. Sources indicate that Satyam may also have faked employee numbers and other data.
Since then increasingly nervous Satyam customers are looking for alternatives in case the scandal-scarred outsourcer is unable to restore internal stability or find a buyer with pockets deep enough to see the Indian company through its current crisis.

Many customers have either completely exited, or are in the process of moving their outsourcing contracts from Satyam to rival tech firms such as IBM, TCS, Wipro, Infosys and Accenture.

Some of the customers, including Telstra, Emerson, Nissan, State Farm Insurance, Applied Materials, Kansas State Bank, and Sony, have either moved out their projects completely, or are in the process of migrating current Satyam work to other outsourcing vendors.

iGATE, which was keenly bidding for the 51% stake of Satyam, has now pulled out from the bidding process mainly due to the loss of Satyam customers. Phaneesh Murthy, CEO of iGATE Corp, said, "We know that there are customer exits happening at Satyam. While the value erosion and the extent of liabilities were a concern, it was the totality of concerns that influenced our decision."

However, some large Indian players like BK Modi's Spice Telecom, Tech Mahindra, and L&T are among the companies to move to the second stage of bidding for the fraud-ridden IT outsourcer.

CXOtoday

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Honda Motor likely to layoff employees

Japan's Honda Motor Co. said on Friday it was cutting 3,100 jobs in Japan and reducing domestic production because of a slump in demand due to the economic downturn.

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