The seven global trends that can reshape the Indian foundry industry are the shift in manufacturing centres closer to demand centres, the advent of e-mobility, increase in demand for foundry, Innovation, Industry 4.0, growing awareness about pollution and the need to attract and retain good talent, , according to a senior State government official.

“There has been a slow, yet gradual, shift of manufacturing from China to other South-East Asian countries. India will become the natural manufacturing base and an alternative to China,” said N Muruganandam, Principal Secretary to the Government of Tamil Nadu, Industries Department.

He was delivering a keynote address at the 68th Indian Foundry Congress & IFEX 2020 held here on Friday. “With a diversified industrial growth spread across the State and strong clusters for foundry, Tamil Nadu will be the preferred manufacturing destination in India,” he added.

Shift to aluminium

He added that with the advent of e-mobility and shift towards light- weight construction structures, there will be an increase in usage of aluminium and lesser iron castings and the foundry industry should be mindful of this impending shift.

He said that the government has set up innovation centres in Sriperumbudur and Hosur manufacturing hubs to take innovation closer to demand centres.

In his inaugural address as the chief guest, Satyakam Arya, CEO and MD, Daimler India Commercial Vehicles, said the foundry industry in India is large but has very low levels of utilisation, which is adding cost and profitability pressure on the industry.

Noting the low utilisation as an advantage, Arya said the industry needs no fresh investment for capital expenditure but can utilise the investment in upgradation.

Improvement in quality and cost competitiveness, automation, creation of safe work environment and forward integration are the expectations of original equipment manufacturers (OEM) from the foundry industry, he added.

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