A large fire at air-conditioning kits supplier Subros Ltd’s Manesar plant yesterday has resulted in Maruti Suzuki India having to temporarily suspend  production at its Manesar and Gurgaon plants starting this afternoon. Production is likely to resume soon once the Subros supply chain returns to normalcy.   

The blaze at Subros Ltd’s Manesar plant on May 29  was caused by a short circuit at the plant premises and the strong winds that swept the capital on Sunday evening further aggravated the situation.

Subros Ltd, which is the leading manufacturer of thermal products for automotive applications in India, in technical collaboration with Denso, has two manufacturing plants at Noida and one each at Manesar, Pune, Chennai and Sanand with an annual capacity of 1.5 million AC kits per annum. Of this capacity, over 50 percent are supplied to Maruti Suzuki.

Maruti Suzuki India today sent out a release which states, “Owing to an unfortunate incident of fire at the Manesar facilities of our supplier, M/s Subros Limited, on Sunday (May 29), supplies of components from that plant have been disrupted. As a consequence, Maruti Suzuki India will have to temporarily suspend manufacture of cars at its facilities in Manesar and Gurgaon, starting second half Monday (May 30).

Subros Ltd and Maruti Suzuki are jointly assessing the extent of damage to essential equipment. We are also examining the options available to start supply of components from other facilities. Production will resume as soon as components become available.”

Autocar Professional has learnt that Subros Ltd has shifted AC production from its Manesar plant to its two Noida plants to mitigate losses due to the fire. 

Other than Maruti, Subros also supplies to Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Renault-Nissan and Force Motors among passenger vehicle manufacturers. On the commercial vehicle front, the company is a supplier to Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Force Motors, Daimler India Commercial Vehicles, Renault-Nissan and Ashok Leyland.