Tata Motors to shut Jamshedpur plant for five days

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's largest vehicle maker, Tata Motors Ltd, will shut its commercial vehicle plant in Jamshedpur for five days amid slowing demand, the Financial Express newspaper reported on Sunday.

The plant, which had already shut for three days from Nov 6, will be closed again from Nov 25-29, the newspaper said.

Vehicle sales have been slumping across the world as economies weaken and consumers cut back on spending, forcing many automakers to consider output cuts.

"Across the industry, it has been seen in the month of October 2008 that unavailability of finance coupled with high interest rates is forcing customers to postpone purchases," the newspaper quoted Tata Motors as saying.

"The sales slowdown witnessed would call for appropriate action from Tata Motors from time to time to match the production with demand and avoid unnecessary build-up of inventories in the company or with its dealers." it added.

Earlier this month, Tata Motors said it would close two of its commercial vehicle plants for six days to avoid unnecessary inventory build-up.

It said its plant in Pune, in the western state of Maharashtra, will be shut Nov. 21-26, while its plant in Lucknow would be shut Nov 10-15.