Tata Motors Slumps to Q2 Loss

More than 170 people were killed in the disaster, with almost 800 injured.

Weakness in China sales, together with currency movements and higher costs, helped underlying profit plunge 86% to £88m even before the impact of the Tianjin explosion which dragged the company into the red.

The division reported a net loss of 92 million pounds during the quarter as against the net profit of 450 million pounds in the corresponding quarter a year ago.

Revealing JLR’s latest financial figures today, its Indian parent company Tata Motors said the United Kingdom auto company’s revenues had held up, rising £23 million to £4.83 billion, despite falling sales in China.

“By the end of this year an agreement will be signed, which creates a formal base for Land Rover to come to Slovakia”, Economy Minister Vazil Hudak told reporters in Bratislava. 30 versus a net profit of 32.9 billion rupees a year earlier, the company said in a statement on Friday. Half year pre-tax profit was slashed by more than two thirds, down to £481m compared to £1.5bn a year ago.

Tata Motors swung to a loss for the quarter ended September 2015 due to weaker China sales and mix, foreign exchange revaluation and higher depreciation and amortization expenses in the Jaguar Land Rover business.

Retail sales for October were 40% up year-on-year in the United Kingdom, 74% up in North America, 24% up in Europe and 9% up in China.

Jaguar Land Rover said the rise had been driven by the positive response to the Jaguar XE and Land Rover Discovery Sport.

“Regional retail sales growth was strong, with US and United Kingdom having their best ever October and Europe significantly up on previous year”.

Other overseas markets were down 5% for the month, reflecting the challenging macro-economic environment in countries such as Russian Federation and Brazil.

China was once Tata’s fastest growing market but it has struggled with sluggish demand in the last few years.

But with XE sales about to start in China (and in the USA in 2016), and the new F-Pace on the way, we should see Jaguar sales continue to grow strongly. It has just gone on sale in China and JLR sold 3,515 XEs, with their diesel engines made at the JLR plant on Wolverhampton’s i54 site, and 15,716 have been sold since the vehicle was launched this summer.