With a steep increase in the demand for oxygen because of the spread of COVID-19 in the recent weeks, the government has come out with plans to set up oxygen plants.
And, Micro, Small and Medium-scale Enterprises (MSMEs) in the engineering sector here are getting orders.
Over 500 vendors in Coimbatore have received orders, say industry sources. The large companies that have taken up orders to set up oxygen plants across the country are giving the drawings to the vendors here and they are doing the fabrication, machining, etc. Some MSMEs have experience and capabilities and the rest are doing their best to meet the demand, the sources said.
However, the orders came in suddenly and not all MSMEs have enough stock of sub-components. These come from the western and northern States. Lockdown restrictions are affecting movement of goods. Hence, there could be supply chain challenges in the coming days. Further, there is no supply of oxygen for industrial use. MSMEs catering to oxygen plant orders need at least minimum supply of industrial oxygen for fabrication work, the sources added.
Seasonal order
“This (oxygen plants) is a seasonal order and time bound. The units have to complete the orders in a short period. However, if this model becomes successful, more hospitals across the country can go in for captive oxygen plants and have it as back up too,” said R. Ramamoorthy, former president of Coimbatore District Small Industries Association.
President of the association M.V. Ramesh Babu said orders were high for oxygen plant works. Apart from the Central government schemes, State governments were also approaching the MSMEs here as Coimbatore had the engineering capabilities, he said.
