Machine tools investment on the vain

Recent forays in the machine tools sector by Karnataka might displace Maharashtra from its numero uno position as the machine tool manufacturing major of the country.

According to Shailesh R Sheth, chairman of the media committee of the Indian Machine Tool Manufacturers' Association (IMTMA), "Karnataka has now become the fashionable machine tools headquarters since the Union government set up its public sector undertakings in Bangalore. Similarly, the setting up of the Central Manufacturing Technical Institute (CMTI) in Bangalore also helped the sector to grow around Bangalore. However, Maharashtra's core competence in the sector needs to be exploited since the sector is primarily in private hands in Kolhapur, Nashik, Satara and Pune."

Machine tools, which are needed to fabricate machinery used in the auto-component, industrial plant and machinery, small scale industries, dyes and mold manufacturing (plastics and aluminium) sectors, enjoy a capital output ratio of 100:1.

"This is to say that the Rs 1,200 crore machine tools sector supports a Rs 1.25 lakh crore manufacturing industry in India. All of the end products of this industry are taxable items and is a means to higher revenue earnings for states and the Union government," he said.

The Rs 1,200 crore machine tools industry in India, ranked 14th in the world, has to leapfrog to the sixth place in the next five years considering the size of the Indian economy and the mismatch in the demand-supply situation, he said.

According to Sheth, the resultant void between demand for manufactured goods and indigenously available machine tools would result in higher imports of machine tools

The IMTMA is organising an international machine tool fair starting from January 28 to February 3, 2004, where 1,150 exhibitors including 530 foreign companies from 26 overseas countries would be participating.

"The exhibitions IMTEX 2004 and Tooltech 2004 are expected to generate confirmed business orders worth Rs 300 crore and business enquiries worth Rs 3,000 crore. Over 10 per cent of the participants comprises manufacturers from Germany, apart from China, France, Italy, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, the UK and the US."