As the pump industry in Coimbatore is facing falling sales because of economic slowdown, it is essential for the manufacturers to innovate and come out with new products, the newly elected President of the Southern India Engineering Manufacturers’ Association (Siema) V Lakshminarayanasamy has said.

Though many pump manufacturers here have already established a global footprint, he said the international markets offered great potential and would strive to encourage the Coimbatore pump industry to improve the share of the export pie.

Speaking at the AGM of Siema here on Wednesday, he said his vision was to increase the domestic market share of the Coimbatore pump industry from 45 per cent at present to at least 50 per cent. Because of the economic slowdown he said there was a “noticeable fall in the sale of pumps” in the past one year which had necessitated austerity measures by the industries and in Siema as well. He said during his term in the next two years, focus will be on engineering quality, innovation and to emerge globally. While stating that the economic slowdown will not change the focus of the industry on quality, he said with a view to meet this new challenge, he will look at finding innovative ideas, adaptation of lean manufacturing and value addition.

Lakshminarayanasamy, who is the MD of Suguna Industries, Coimbatore, also urged the Siema members to come out with new products and processes so that they grew together. Though the pump industry here has established itself in the global markets, he felt there were ‘many new opportunities abroad’ and his intention was to ‘motivate the members’ to explore them and cater to the needs of the new markets that are emerging.

The others elected were KK Rajan, V Krishnakumar and KV Karthick, all as Vice-Presidents of Siema.

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