MUMBAI, July 25 (Xinhua) -- India's multinational automaker Tata Motors saw its April-June quarterly loss widened to 536.1 million U.S. dollars due to weakening domestic market as well its lower volumes in its subsidiary - Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) volumes, the company said on Thursday.
India's largest commercial vehicle and fourth largest passenger vehicle (PV) manufacturer had posted a loss of 275.8 million U.S. dollars in the corresponding April-June quarter last year and profit of 162 million U.S. dollars in the preceding January-March quarter 2019.
"The continued slow down across the auto industry due to weak consumer sentiments, liquidity stress and the impact of axle load effect particularly in medium/heavy duty, impacted overall demand," said Tata CEO and Managing Director Guenter Butschek.
"Over the past few years we had struck a good balance between managing market dynamics and financial health. However, this time, despite our continuous turnaround effort we could not prevent some impact on our quarter performance," Butschek said.
The company's British arm JLR reported a pre-tax loss of 493.5 million U.S. dollars during the quarter as compared to 329.8 million U.S. dollars loss in the same period a year ago.
"Despite challenging conditions in the first quarter, Jaguar Land Rover is creating a more robust and resilient business, in which we will continue to deliver a strong pipeline of products that our customers will love," said JLR Chief Executive Ralf Speth.
India's domestic automobile sector, which employs nearly 37 million people, has witnessed a continuous drop in sales over the past quarters.
