Bearings Makers Plan Crackdown On Bogus Trade

Bearings manufacturers will shortly launch a strong offensive against spurious products, which is eating into the margins of the organised sector. Leading the move will be companies like FAG Bearings India Ltd and Timken India Ltd. Bearings manufacturers are also gearing up for growth in the future powered by mergers and acquisitions in the bearings industry.

Timken India Ltd, for instance, had undertaken an extensive exercise to crack down on spurious products and other companies also plan to follow Timken and launch a concerted effort to curb spurious trade. Addressing the Eastern India Ball Bearing Merchants Association in Calcutta yesterday, J R Patel, vice chairman and managing director, FAG Bearings India, said: "A market of the size of India does not require 12 suppliers. Over the next two years there will be about half that number as a result of mergers and acquisitions. The reason is that individual companies are too small to take on the emerging user industry giants, like the auto sector for instance, on issues of pricing."