Rlys To Step Up Machine Tools Imports
Indian Railways, one of the largest buyers of machine tools in the country, has decided to source most of its requirements through imports.
The railway departments imports, which account for about 30 per cent of its total annual purchases of about Rs 60 crore, is set to rise to 70 per cent in a couple of years. According to Railways Board member (mechanical) Ashok Kumar, the domestic industry is unable to cater to the departments high-technology requirements.
The railways machine tools purchases are second only to the auto industrys (including the auto component sector) which accounted for about Rs 400 crore of the total turnover of almost Rs 1,000 crore generated by the industry last year.
The domestic industry can take care only of our conventional tools requirements. But we are going in for new technology in coaches and locomotives. We need computer numerically controlled (CNC) tools. The out-dated technology renders the domestic industry incapable of meeting the railways precision requirements, said Kumar.
We are refurbishing our workshops. People are being sent abroad for training. The days of conventional machine tools for Indian Railways are over. If the industry has to be in business with Indian Railways, it has to cover a lot of ground, he added.
Observers says the railways decision to shift focus to imports would mean a further setback to the domestic machine tools industry, whose growth has slowed down from 50 per cent in calendar year 1993 to 5 per cent in 1997.
However, according to Indian Machine Tool Manufacturers Association (IMTMA) president C R Swaminathan, it would have negligible impact on the industry. The railways used to be a crucial buyer for the domestic machine tools industry. That is not true anymore. Anyway, not many domestic manufacturers are interested in dealing with the railways. Sometimes, they defer payments by more than 10 years, he added.
Swaminathan stressed that the domestic industry is capable of meeting the technological requirements as 90 per cent of the modern technology is available in the country.
There have not been many joint ventures with foreign companies in the recent past, but there have been quite a few strategic alliances through which foreign technology has been coming in. Besides, our after sales service and supply of spare parts cannot be matched by foreign manufacturers, he said.
Regardless of the complaints, the railways is sending a big delegation to the Indian machine tool exhibition Imtex 98 being held at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi from February 24 to March 3.
We are preparing presentations for areas in which we want the domestic industry to come up, CNC for example. We would like to talk about our needs and the new projects, said Kumar.
Swaminathan, too, is counting on Imtex 98 to exhibit what the domestic industry has to offer and what is being offered by foreign manufacturers. Each participant in the show is exhibiting a minimum of two new products, he said.