SATISH HANDA
Spread of corona virus disease in China has adversely affected global economy and according to experts it will take long time to bring situation under control. According to IMF report released during recent G-20 Meet at Riyad in Saudi Arab, the disease in China has been a challenge for industry as most of the countries across world procuring raw materials from China and it would take long time to bring industry in China normal.
Industry in India has also been affected due to present crisis in China and ban over imports from China and domestic suppliers of raw material has already increased the prices up to nearly 10% on the stocks available with them taking advantage of grave situation. Executive Director of Engineering Export Promotion Council Suranjan Gupta said, suppliers of special steel used in majority of industry manufacturing engineering components has increased price by nearly 10% as such their production cost for the goods for which export orders have already been procured by them would also increase.
President of Engineering Goods Exporters & Federation of India Export Promotion Organization S.C. Ralhan told that the prices of raw material used in production of nylon and chemical products have also been increased by over 10% in past few days by the suppliers expecting shortage in future. He disclosed that industry manufacturing electronic goods, television, refrigeration compressors, air conditioning equipment and alloy chips in India is dependent on raw material imported from China and market has witnessed nearly 10% increase in prices in past few days and in case no relief in supply chain takes place the situation would further worsen in future. He said, even prominent electrical goods manufacturers like Crompton,, Voltas, Havel etc are dependent on China for supply of raw material.
According to B.R. Bhatia President of Faridabad Industries Association, garment industry in Faridabad procures widely used raw material including buttons, thread, Zip, hooks, beads and plastic fabric used in garment production from China because of much cheaper prices offered by manufacturers in China than available in India. The entrepreneurs of famous automobile and electronic industry at Gurugram, too, expressed concern saying that in case corona virus disease situation does not improve immediately the manufacturers in the country would be in trouble to have control over their production cost due fast rising prices of raw material.
Signs of relief were seen in rice exporters of Haryana state having large number of leading exporters in the country received handsome export orders for the rice from Dubai, USA, Africa and other countries across the world at recent Gulf Food Fair held at Dubai World Trade Centre due to present crisis in China facing corona virus spread as such industry in the country witnessing decline likely to leave its effect for a long time. Sushil Jain National President All India Rice Exporters Association said that in view of ban over exports from China, Indian exporters were able to get plenty of orders in this fair. He said, sale of non-basmati rice was being adversely affected as Indian exporters were not getting export orders since past few years due to lesser prices offered by the rice exporters in China. He disclosed that export sale of rice had witnessed nearly 35% drop in the year 2019 as compared to year 2018 due to higher prices offered by Indian rice exporters. Jain said, 16.6 lakh tons rice was sold by Indian rice exporters in the year 2019 having 10.27% drop in sale as compared to previous year 2018 and Indian exporters were expecting further drop in exports in present year.
