New Delhi, March 11 (IANS): The auto part supply chain disruption due to the lockdown in China over the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak is expected to critically hamper India's automobile production across all segments, the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) said on Wednesday.

According to Rajan Wadhera, President, SIAM, many automakers in India import about 10 per cent of their raw materials from China. Consequently, the disruption in availability of these parts are likely to critically hamper production across all segments, namely passenger vehicles (PV), commercial vehicles (CV), three-wheelers (3W), two-wheelers (2W) and electric vehicles (EVs).

Furthermore, Wadhera emphasised that with anticipation of the Chinese New Year, the industry had maintained an inventory at the beginning of the year, but with the current lockdown in China, supply for BSVI vehicles is likely to get impacted.

"Manufacturers are exploring alternatives to fulfil their supply chain demands but that would also take a substantial amount of time to reach stable production scale as these components would need regulatory testing," Wadhera was quoted as saying in a statement.

Additionally, he said that SIAM has been in touch with the Centre with specific recommendations on behalf of the auto industry.