More than 50 % drop in demand for pumpsets used at houses (residential use pumpsets) for about a month has hit the micro, small and medium-scale enterprises (MSMEs) here.
K.V. Karthik, president of Southern India Engineering Manufacturers’ Association (SIEMA), said a large number of large companies that sold branded residential pumpsets across the country sourced their requirements from the industries in Coimbatore. These companies had reduced their sourcing now. A substantial volume of residential pumpsets were made here.
Vice-president of the Association Ma. Sendil Kumar added that the drop in demand was because of two or three factors.
Usually, construction activities slowed down during rainy season and sale of residential pumpsets dropped during these months. However, the decline in orders was high this year.
In Coimbatore, nearly 50 % of the residential pumpsets made were for other leading brands and the rest were for own brand. The larger companies had given orders a few months ago for September too. They did not expect sudden drop in sales and had cancelled the orders in August. Now, the manufacturing units here had the raw materials.
“We are unable to plan and this can lead to financial crisis,” he says.
J. James, president of Tamil Nadu Association of Cottage and Micro Enterprises, said 40 % of the micro units in Coimbatore did job orders for pumpset units. The orders from these units were very low now.
“They (pumpset manufacturers) are asking for less number of parts and in different varieties. Catering to such orders will result in losses for the job working micro units,” he said.
Mr. Sendil Kumar added that the pumpset manufacturers planned to tap opportunities in exports.
The Indian pumpset market was ₹17,000 to ₹18,000 crore a year and the global market was nearly $ 95 billion. “We have large scope to bring forex through exports. We plan to form a cluster involving 10 to 20 companies,” he said.
The focus would be on marketing, creating common infrastructure, and investing in research and development, he added.
