Huge investments required in foundry industry: IIF

Huge investments are needed in the foundry industry to tap its potential fully and meet the increasing demand in next ten years, Institute of Indian Foundrymen President K Samaraj has said.
Foundries play a vital role in supporting manufacturing. Now, only 65 per cent of the capacity of the Indian foundries is being utilised, Samaraj said today.
There is a need to tap the remaining potential, particularly in view of the new manufacturing policy to increase the share of manufacturing in the GDP to 25 per cent from the current 15 per cent, he added.
Besides, the move is needed to create 100 million jobs in the next 10 years, he told reporters here.

Samaraj further said that the Indian foundry industry produces 10 million tonnes of cast components in ferrous and non ferrous category as per various international standards, with an annual turnover of about USD 18 billion, which was only 10 per cent of global production in weight.
It was estimated that to meet the demand for castings for various sectors, the replacement parts and export requirements, the production will have to increase to at least 25 to 30 million tonnes in the next 10 years, he said.
To achieve this, the industry requires huge investments for capacity addition to the tune of USD 1,000 a tonne per year, he said, adding that in the power front, the sector, which uses 1.75 trillion units for the present production, required at least five trillion units to utilise full capacity and to meet the demand of castings.

Indian foundries consumed 20 per cent more power than global industries, he said.