Mumbai, Feb 24 (IANS) Chennai-based TVS Motor Company on Monday said that its vehicle sales suffered a 10 per cent drop in "planned production" due to the coronavirus outbreak in China.

The company said that the outbreak of pandemic coronavirus has led to an impact on supply of certain components for production of BS-VI vehicles as China, the epicentre of the outbreak, is a key part of the global automobile supply chain.

"While TVS Motor's direct dependency on China is limited for components, some Tier II suppliers have been impacted adversely which will lead to a 10 per cent drop in the planned production in February 2020. All efforts are on to normalise this at the earliest," the company said in a regulatory filing.

In order to insulate its business from the adverse impact of the deadly virus, K.N. Radhakrishnan, Director and CEO, TVS Motor Company, said that the company is consistently monitoring developments with those of its suppliers who are sourcing certain components from
China.

"Parallelly, we are also exploring suppliers in other regions and are looking to localise within India," Radhakrishnan said.

TVS Motors shares on the BSE closed 1.95 per cent lower at Rs 437.50 a share.

Earlier, the rating agency ICRA had said that India's automotive industry is likely to be negatively impacted due to the recent outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19) across China and neighbouring countries in South-East Asia.

"China accounts for 27 per cent of India's auto component imports valued at $4.8 billion. The impact is estimated to be higher for high value-add and customized components, while commoditized products could shift to alternative suppliers," ICRA said.

ICRA said that the disruption in supply of certain critical components sourced from China will have a differential impact.

--IANS ravi/in