The move follows similar price increases in October by Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, GM and Honda.
"The prices are being revised to partially offset appreciation in input and transportation costs,” said Nitish Tipnis, director – Sales and Marketing at Hover Automotive India, the national sales company of Nissan in India. “While all leading automobile companies raised prices earlier this year, we at Nissan absorbed rising input costs and held back the price hike...We have now reached the stage where we have to make an adjustment.”
Nissan’s year-on-year sales in India more than doubled to 33,000 units last year and the company plans to continue the two-fold increase in sales in the current financial year, to achieve its target of 100,000 units by 2013. It is aiming to expand its dealer network from 75 dealers to 95 by end of the current financial year.
Nissan has already increased the price of the Micra and Sunny in India this year. Prices of all three variants of petrol Micra went up by Rs 3,000 in January, while prices of both variants of diesel Micra went up by Rs 12,000.
Gefco makes emergency tyre shipment for PSA
Last month Gefco successfully completed an expedited delivery of 3,000 tyres from Michelin’s distribution centre in Valladolid, Spain to Argentina following an urgent request from PSA Peugeot Citroën.
The carmaker, which was has a plant in Buenos Aires producing around 130,000 vehicles per year, was facing a shortage of tyres for inclusion on the Peugeot 308 in the middle of September because of supply chain disruption though to stem from slower customs procedures at the border. Gefco Spain’s Overseas department was able to ship the tyres between the facility in Valladolid to the Argentinian plant in 48 hours.
According to Gefco, the logistics provider was able to rely on its logistics engineering capacity and multimodal transport and customs expertise to organise the emergency shipment.
According to PSA, two thirds of the tyres delivered to its Argentine plant are provided by suppliers within Argentina while the other third are provided by suppliers in Brazil (mainly) and Europe.
PSA said it had strategies in place to avoid production problems stemming from disruption to the supply chain.
“Even if the new customs procedures have slowed down the normal flow of the whole supply chain, we have, jointly with our suppliers, managed the situation in order to prevent disruptions to our production line,” said a spokesperson for the company.
Mann+Hummel open distribution facility
Automotive air and fuel filtration supplier Mann+Hummel has opened a new 5,500-square-metre distribution facility at its Feathersone site near Wolverhampton in the UK.
The additional facility means that Featherstone will now service both aftermarket sales and Mann+Hummel’s distribution division for the Mann-Filter brand supplied to the automotive industry.
The company said the facility is built on best practice principles, particularly in the layout of the warehouse and the design, configuration and installation of the racking solution, provided and installed by Link 51, the UK’s largest manufacturer of pallet racking systems, shelving and lockers.
Link 51 designed and installed 142 bays with 6,300 pallet locations and constructed a tiered mezzanine structure designed to accommodate an additional tier for future needs. A secure cage was also installed inside the warehouse for high value goods.
Sevetas gains ISO 14001 accreditation
Vehicle risk management, claims and damage expert Sevatas has secured ISO 14001 accreditation for the environmental management of its business in Europe.
“As well as reducing our usage of consumables, such as paper and electricity, we avoid compromising our excellent client service which sometimes requires both national and international travel by selecting low emission vehicles and asking our staff to make appropriate use of public transport where possible,” said environmental officer Juliet Hood.
The company said it has worked economic and green concepts into its supply chain, selecting and working with partners and suppliers to monitor their environmental compliance ensuring a sustainable future.
In September Sevatas also renewed its ISO 9001 accreditation covering standards for quality management systems.
“The quality of what we do has always been the most significant priority of our business,” said managing director Kevin Collins. “Renewing our ISO 9001 accreditation demonstrates our commitment to the ongoing improvement of our business and keeping the client experience at the heart of everything we do.”
