Hindustan Syringes and Medical Devices (HMD), the market leader in the syringes segment with around 60 per cent share of the domestic market, is now planning to enter new export markets after witnessing a dip in its export to US and EU.
Rajiv Nath, joint managing director of HMD said, "Our exports have been hit by the rupee-dollar rate fluctuation. The dollar is now weaker by around 10 per cent compared to a year before. We are now looking at African and in the South American markets and the CIS block as these markets are comparatively insulated from the currency fluctuations." While Nath declined to give out figures related to the dip in export volumes, he admitted that there indeed was a decline in net exports during the 2009-10 fiscal.
Exports currently contribute to around 20 per cent of the net turnover of HMD, which was over Rs 375 crore in FY10. Nath informed that apart from disposable syringes and needles, more than 50 per cent of the other products like surgical blades, IV cannulas and scalp vein sets are exported. Out of the total exports of HMD, over 50 per cent is to USA and Western Europe. HMD is targeting to take the share of exports in its turnover to 30 per cent by 2015. As for the current fiscal, the company is targeting exports to contribute to around 20-25 per cent of its turnover.
On the domestic front, too, HMD has been facing some tough times with cheaper Chinese imports flooding the market.
"Chinese auto-disable(AD) syringes are on an average 27-30 per cent cheaper compared to the Indian product, and now with cost of imports down by around 7.5 per cent in the current budget, domestic players are facing stiff competition," Nath claimed.
The company thus decided to rework its capacity expansion target for the current fiscal on account of sluggish domestic sales from 25 per cent to 15 per cent of net installed capacity.
"We have invested Rs 30 crore to expand our capacity by 15 per cent this fiscal. The current capacity stands at 1.8 billion syringes and 3 billion needles per annum," Nath said.
