Protests outside Posco's India steel plant to be called off

CIE Automotive India

15/03/2021 23:30

(Repeats with no changes)
    By Rajendra Jadhav and Aditi Shah
    MUMBAI, March 15 (Reuters) - Protests by townspeople outside
South Korean steelmaker Posco's  005490.KS  plant in western
India will be called off because the company has agreed to meet
some demands, a local politician leading the agitation told
Reuters on Monday, paving the way for Posco to resume shipments
to automakers.
    Operations at Posco's plant in Maharashtra state have been
disrupted since early March. Residents of Raigad district near
the facility protested over job opportunities and hiring
practices. This has hit the supply chain for automakers and
caused fears of production halts for some companies.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2LA0GH
    Automakers such as Maruti Suzuki  MRTI.NS , India's top
carmaker by sales, Hyundai Motor  005380.KS , Kia Motors
 000270.KS , Tata Motors  TAMO.NS  and Mahindra & Mahindra
 MAHM.NS  source steel from the Posco plant and manufacture over
80% of passenger vehicles in the country.
    The state's deputy chief minister met executives from Posco
and some protesters on Monday, and the two sides agreed to a
deal, Chandrashekhar Khanvilkar, the local politician leading
the protests, said.
    "The issue has been sorted out," said Khanvilkar. 
    Posco did not immediately respond to a request for comment
outside regular business hours. 
    Protesters, who have blocked entry to the plant for
employees and goods, wanted Posco to give employment preference
to locals, raise wages for temporary staff and make them
permanent. They also wanted preferences for local companies as
vendors for transport and other services and buyers of Posco's
scrap.
    The company said it will try to give priority to local
people when current employment contracts come up for renewal and
preference to local companies, but it did not agree to wage
raises, Khanvilkar said. 
    Reuters could not confirm that shipments at the plant had
resumed.
    The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) said 
on Monday that no steel has left the Posco plant since March 4,
causing shortages for some major automakers and , with one
company's production already being impacted. 

 (Reporting by Aditi Shah; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
 ((aditi.shah@tr.com; +91-11-4954 8023, +91-11-3015 8023;
Reuters Messaging: twitter: @aditishahsays))