Accelerating
innovation
The
Machinist shines the arc lights on the Indian machine tool industry’s
largest exhibition, Imtex 2004, as manufacturers gear up to showcase
latest trends
The
Indian economy is on a bullish trend with the manufacturing sector picking
up pace, says a recent CIIAscon survey. The survey says production trends
displayed excellent growth. Sectors such as machine tools, commercial
vehicles, light commercial vehicles, utility vehicles, cars, three wheelers
and aluminium were especially progressive. Being an integral sector,
the growth of the machine tool industry has an immense bearing on the
entire economy, especially in India.
The
Indian machine tool industry is now recognised as a provider of low-cost,
high-quality and lean manufacturing solutions. The industry continuously
provides support to all its members to enhance productivity as well
as improve competitiveness. The resurgence of industrial momentum in
the Indian economy has led to increased business opportunities for almost
all the major manufacturing segment, including many of the user industries
of machine tools.
GROWTH
SPURT
Much
of the growth in the machine tools industry in 2003 appears sustainable
due to enhanced demand from all quarters of the user industries. Apart
from the home market, tapping opportunities which exist in potential
overseas markets like Europe and the US is a critical focus area for
the Indian machine tool manufacturers. The metal-cutting segment of
machine tools totted up a turnover of Rs 4,139 million, resulting in
a marginal 2.5 per cent growth in 2002.
This
growth was primarily due to an 18 per cent surge in production of CNC
metal-cutting machine tools. The business boom, clearly, lies in the
CNC machine tool segment. A total of 1,655 CNC machines worth Rs 3,204
million manufactured in the Indian industry, posting a growth of 17
per cent in 2002.
Turning
centres, together with machining centres, electro-discharge machines,
and grinding machines garnered a share as high as 70 per cent in the
overall metalworking machine tools manufactured in India during January
to December 2002.
EXPORT
SCENARIO
A
forceful emphasis on expanding market share beyond the national horizon
led to the Indian machine tool industry achieving a 30 per cent growth.
Indian manufacturers exported 211 metalworking machine tools valued
at Rs 485 million in the year 2002.
Both
the CNC and the conventional segments witnessed high export orders,
owing to the change in perception about the ‘Made in India’ brand in
overseas markets. Europe and the US formed the preferred destination
for Indian manufacturers out of the total 35 countries where machine
tools were exported. Speaking about the efforts of the Indian machine
tools industry towards expert enhancement, VS Goindi, President, IMTMA
(Indian Machine Tool Manufacturers’ Association) said that the success
of Indian manufacturers in bagging business orders worth Rs 4 crore
at the recently concluded machine tool fair, EMO 2003, the world’s largest,
is laudable.
“Export
orders for another Rs 14 crore worth of machine tools will be firmed
up over the next few months through this participation,” he added. He
pointed out that this is a major step in motivating corporates to achieve
the entire industry’s objective of 30 per cent export share in total
production turnover.
IMPORT
TRENDS
Heightened
domestic industrial activity was good business for machine tool importers,
who registered a sharp 40 per cent increase in orders from the Indian
market. Approximately 2,960 machine tools valued at Rs 4,332 million
were imported into India in 2002.
The
bulk of the imports comprised metal-cutting machine tools, which too
witnessed a 56 per cent increase over the previous year. And within
this segment, machining centres, turning centres and presses formed
the large chunk of imports. These three machine categories together
captured nearly 48 per cent of the total machine tool imports into the
country in 2002.
.........CONTD
