Agriauto announces partial plant shutdown in July

Agriauto Industries Limited, a manufacturer of auto components, announced it will partially shut down its plant during July in a notice to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Monday.

“Due to the reduction in production volumes of our major customers, the company will be observing partial shutdown during the month of July 2023,” read the notice.

Agriauto extends partial plant shutdown in April as auto woes worsen

As per information available on the PSX, Agriauto Industries was incorporated in Pakistan on June 25, 1981, as a public limited company. The company is engaged in the manufacture and sale of components for automotive vehicles, motorcycles and agricultural tractors.

Its clients include Suzuki, Toyota and Atlas Honda, automakers that are struggling and have shut down plant operations on multiple occasions as the sector deals with inventory shortages due to import restrictions.

Last month, Indus Motor Company (IMC), the assembler of Toyota vehicles in Pakistan, decided to shut production citing raw material and component shortages. Similarly, Pak Suzuki Motor Company (PSMC) also announced the shutdown of its automobile and motorcycle plant citing government import restrictions.

Pakistan remains short of much-needed dollars to meet its import and other external payment commitments. However, experts are of the view that the recent deal between Pakistani authorities and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) would help alleviate the reserve situation and pave way for funding from multilateral and bilateral partners.

IMF and Pakistan reached a staff-level agreement on a new nine-month, $3-billion stand-by arrangement on Friday.