AHMEDABAD: After witnessing a dry spell in sales with inventory piling up to nearly 300 unsold units in October,
Max Ventilators, one of the leading
ventilator manufacturers in the country, has seen a sudden spike in demand over the last few weeks.
The company has since sold some 600 ventilators with a fresh revival in demand, according to Ashok Patel, founder and MD of Max Ventilators.
The company made these sales in states such as Maharashtra, West Bengal, Kerala and Karnataka. About 100 were sold in Kochi, he added.
Max Ventilators, a part of Vadodara-based
AB Industries saw a turnaround in its fortunes this year. It sold more than 1,500 ICU ventilators between April and November compared to about 250 in all of 2019.
“In the last few weeks, there has been an increase in
fresh Covid-19 cases. Like earlier,
Covid facilities are again filling up. There has been a resurgence in demand for ventilators, the indispensable life-saving device for Covid patients. This surge in demand for ventilators with rising cases has been seen from Dussehra and Diwali,” Patel said.
The company went on a massive expansion drive as the
Covid-19 crisis arose, where it ramped up its manufacturing capacity from 30 ventilators per month to 1,000 a month.
“Constantly monitoring the Covid-19 numbers across the country and the world, we had anticipated that the coming winter would see more cases which in turn would drive demand for ventilators. That is exactly how events have turned out,” said Patel.
Since Dussehra, there has been a 35% increase in demand for ventilators, he added. “We take pride in the fact that due to the demand surge, Max Ventilators alone has accounted for 15% of supply of ventilators,” Patel said.
Max also has a strategic tie up with BHEL for manufacturing another 1,500 ventilators a month at Bhopal.