Neeraj Bagga

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, May 26

DP Singh, an entrepreneur, says the production in his factory producing rubber rollers for textile processing units across the country is now half of what it used to be in pre-Covid era.

“My industry is badly hit. Fabric in general and costly fabric in particular is no longer in the priority list of people. Travel and party restrictions have limited the mobility of people. So the demand for textile has waned, prompting the industrialists to bring down production. This, in turn, curbed the demand for rubber rollers.”

Even as the demand was extremely low yet there has been a tremendous increase in price of almost all raw materials utilised in manufacturing rubber rollers. For instance, prices of synthetic rubbers, rubber chemicals and carbon black increased between 25 to 40 percent during the past few months. Besides, there has been disruption in imports as well.

“This changing scenario is impacting the industry so much that there is hardly any scope for research and development. We are continuously fighting an unknown enemy and taking short term measures to tackle day to day problems. Hence long term planning has massively suffered.”

“At this juncture, we cannot think of new expansion or upgrade in the current scenario as our capacity utilisation right now is already down to 50 percent.”

Since most of the highly industrialised states like Maharashtra and Gujarat have massively suffered due to corona hence orders from these states have evaporated.

Apart from industry, what pricks him more is the need for a sustainable environment. “It is for all of us to think about environmental sustainability in our manufacturing activities. This pandemic has taught us the hard way that playing with nature will cost dear to humankind.”

Short-term measures to help tide over crisis

DP Singh, an entrepreneur, says this changing scenario is impacting the industry so much that there is hardly any scope for research and development. “We are continuously fighting an unknown enemy and taking short term measures to tackle day to day problems. At this juncture, we cannot think of new expansion or upgrade in the current scenario as our capacity utilisation right now is already down to 50 percent,” he says.