The foundry industry in Punjabhas pinned hopes on the growth of automobile sector. This came as a big relief to over 1,000 foundry units at the steel towns of the state.
Till recently, the foundry industry was facing a serious crisis with many units in the two foundry clusters of Punjab at Mandi Gobindgarh and Batala surrendering sales tax numbers and power connections. From 2,000 units in 1980 Batala has less than 950 and Mandi Gobindgarh close to only 100 foundry units. According to industry sources first it was the global slowdown and then costly but poor power supply which had led to sharp decline in domestic and export coupled with severe cash flow problem and pressure on margins.
Naresh Garg, president, Institute of Indian Foundrymen told FE here that ?power cost accounts for 20% of total expenses by any foundry unit which made most of the units financially unviable?.
Garg told that ?China produced 35 million tonne while India produced just 8 million tonne because power was cheaper in China and regulations governing foundry were liberal coupled with availability of skilled manpower?. He said that ?with domestic demand steadily improving as compared to last year and the increased output of auto industry he was apprehensive of more cheap exports from China which may again hit foundry units in the country?.
Jagat Shah, who has a foundry unit and is former president of the Indian Foundrymen Institute told FE that ?the country has over 5,000 foundries and nearly 80% of these fall under small scale sector and it is here that government has come to their rescue to come up with special concessions to this SSI sector?. He said that most of these SSI units include foundries producing ferrous, non-ferrous, aluminum, graded cast iron and steel castings for a wide ranging applications in automobile,railways,pumps,compressors and alves,machines,aerospace,sanitary pipes fittings etc. He said that foundry industry employs over 5 lakh workers.
Those in foundry industry opine that the foundry industry can make inroads in to export market and good margins if government ensures uninterrupted power supply at cheaper rates.
The Indian Foundrymen Institute aims to ?train foundry manpower in the areas of latest technology and practices, energy conservation and safety with thrust on quality enhancement and larger volumes. There was need for foundries to install high speed automatic moulding lines, high power density energy efficient induction furnaces and automatic pouring systems?.
Garg told FE that ?the Institute of Indian Foundrymen is the apex body of the Indian foundry industry having more than 3000 members and 30 chapters across the country?.
He informed that the Institute would be holding the Indian Foundry Congress at Chandigarh from February 11 to 13. Chandigarh had been chosen as the venue for the Indian Foundry Congress in view of large number of foundry units situated in Punjab and Haryana. About 1300 delegates and over 250 exhibitors including those from Germany, Italy, Japan, China and Taiwan would be participating in the event.
KS Satyanaryana, former president of the Foundrymen Institute told that Union Minister of Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, Pawan Kumar Bansal would inaugurate the Congress while Secretary, Ministry of MSME, Uday Kumar Varma would inaugurate foundry exhibition. Buyer-seller meetings, CEOs meetings and 12 technical sessions would be the highlights of the three day event.
