Planning orders around Diwali and Pongal shutdowns

Two festival periods affect lead times at every machine shop in Coimbatore: Diwali in October or November and Pongal in mid-January. Our own shop closes for only a few days at each, but suppliers and transporters around us close longer, and the effect on lead times can be two to three weeks. Planning ahead avoids surprises.

Around Diwali, we close for three days. Many of our workers travel home to villages in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, and some take a week. Heat treaters and platers in Coimbatore and Hosur often shut for five to seven days, and transporters slow down in the week before. Parts that need heat treatment or plating can be delayed by up to two weeks. For deliveries needed in the first half of November, place orders by mid-September.

Pongal brings a four-day closure, from Bhogi to Kaanum Pongal. It is the most important festival of the year for many of our people, and almost the whole industrial estate closes together. Raw material suppliers often hold no stock movement in that week. For January deliveries, confirm orders by the first week of December.

We publish our holiday calendar to customers in January each year and remind you two months before each closure. For export orders, remember that shipping lines and ports also slow down around these dates and around Christmas and the new year in Europe and the US. If you have a fixed launch date, tell us early; we can often build ahead and hold finished parts in our store at no cost.