The Hindu Business Line : ‘Foundry sector slowdown temporary’

Mr Vinod Kapur, former President of the Institute of Indian Foundrymen and Managing Director of Gargi Huttenes Albertus Pvt Ltd, addressing the CII National Foundry Conclave in Coimbatore on Thursday.

Our Bureau

Coimbatore, Dec. 4 Though the foundry units, particularly those catering to the automobile sector, are battling with a demand slump, it is not the end of the road for them and they need not fear any prolonged demand recession. The industry should utilise this opportunity to train the manpower so that it would be ready to meet increased demand when the economy bounces back, according to Mr Vinod Kapur, former President, Institute of Indian Foundrymen and Managing Director, Gargi Huttenes Albertus Pvt Ltd.

Speaking at the inaugural of the ‘CII National Foundry Conclave 08’ at Coimbatore on Thursday, he said having foundry units in multiple locations was an emerging trend globally and in India also the Tata, Amtek, Hinduja, Kirloskar and Sakthi Automotive groups have their units in many locations.

He said the ‘biggest weakness’ today in the foundry industry was the lack of knowledgeable and trained manpower. Very few have in-house programmes to train their employees. When the going was very good in the past two years, most of the foundry units did not have time to focus on manpower training. But the present downturn provided an opportunity to the foundry sector do so. Clean environment is another area where the foundries should turn their attention to.Mr Kapur said the European foundry industry considered India as a big competitor. He said the amount being invested in the automobile sector in India was ‘mind boggling’ and every major car manufacturer had invested in India looking at it as a manufacturing hub for small cars. He said in most of the countries the foundry industry was in a disastrous condition, including China, which ranked No 1 among the countries with a strong foundry industry. Even if the order volume had come down in India, it could do better. Since October-November most of the auto sector foundries in India have reduced production by around 40 per cent. Small and medium foundries that produce engineering castings have seen their production coming down by 10-20 per cent. He said the steel foundries also have seen a fall in production which was not due to declining demand but due to power problems.

Mr C.R.Swaminathan, Deputy Chairman, CII (Southern Region), said the availability of skilled manpower provided the Indian foundry industry an edge over competitors. But though the labour cost was low, the cost for a unit of output was uncompetitive in global terms. The country needed a uniform growth pattern in all sections for it to become the third largest producer of castings in the world.

He said out of the total castings production, the share of small foundries was 80 per cent while the medium and large foundries shared equally the rest.

Mr Swaminathan said because of the global recession, the customers were asking for price rationalisation. But with the foundries facing several constraints such as reduced working hours due to power cut, the operational costs have gone up. He urged the foundry industry to develop new processes to avoid pollution rather than control and treat it. Though moving towards greener foundries would need substantial investment, in the long run it would fetch better results.

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