Cracks develop in Morbi tile industry

Stoppage of kerosene supply, rising freight and fuel prices prove to be a major hurdle

With freight prices hitting the roof due to rising fuel prices, the roofing tiles manufacturer of Morbi are finding themselves in deep trouble.

Their problems have got further compounded with the stoppage of kerosene oil supplies. 150 of such units in the town are on the brink of closure.

Jayantibhai Patel, president of Roofing Tiles Association - Morbi, confirmed these problems faced by the roofing tiles industry in Morbi, a taluka in Rajkot.

Morbi units have a monopoly in western India with the production of 45 crore roofing tiles every year. The industry provides direct employment to around 5,000 people, Patel added.

Even after entrusting the responsibility of distributing free-sale kerosene to the Indian Oil Corporation, its distribution has not been streamlined, said Patel.

For giving a proper shape to the tiles, a layer of kerosene is applied to the iron mould. Nearly 5 litre kerosene is required for the production of 1,000 pieces of such tiles.

The basic raw material for manufacturing of roofing tiles are red and black soil, available in surrounding areas of Morbi while lignite is procured from Kutch, not far away from Morbi.

The sales network is spread over Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Delhi and other states in the country. Moreover, 10 to 15 units of Morbi are also exporting tiles to UAE, and African countries. The Morbi units contribute nearly 50 per cent to the total production in the country.

Earlier, these tiles were widely used in rural area as roof covering. But now, these tiles are not used much, affecting the fortunes of the industry. However, small sized decorative roofing tiles have staged a come back.

There are four major centres of tiles production in India"" Kozhikode, Mohani and Babalghat, besides Morbi. Nearly 60 per cent of manufacturing process is done manually.

During the four monsoon months, the industry comes to a standstill. And now when the time has come to resume production, kerosene supplies have become a major headache for the industry, Patel informed.

We need only 1,000 to 1,500 lt of kerosene per month, for which, earlier kerosene quota was allotted to these units. But this year the problem has largely got unattended till now, Patel said.