Cutting Edge

The Indian Cutting Tools Industry Is At An Inflection Point, With Players Consciously Striving To Manufacture Advanced Products, Locally, Thereby Minimising The Import Reliance And Reducing Cost.

- Mitalee Kurdekar

THE INDIAN CUTTING TOOLS INDUSTRY IS AT an interesting cusp in its evolution process. While the demand for cutting tools from users within the manufacturing sector has been steady and, in fact, growing, unique governmental initiatives like Make in India and a focus on skill development programmes are providing a much-needed impetus to this industry’s progress. Acknowledging such positive intent and change, industry players find this to be an encouraging sign, since metal cutting activities are a critical component of most industrial segments of the economy.

According to IMTMA, India’s manufacturing of machine tools is growing at a healthy pace to meet growing domestic demand. Additionally, it is now seen as an export-oriented manufacturing hub with the Government promoting active policy measures within the Make in India campaign and the goal to make India a regional manufacturing hub. The country, though, still relies heavily on imports with domestic production accounting for less than half of total domestic requirements. This is due to a variety of reasons. These range from the need for highly sophisticated technology tools, high average value but low volumes of certain tools, and low value and high volumes which do not provide enough economies of scale. In the past, with no backing for local manufacturing, the country kept losing valuable forex to advanced economies like Japan, Germany, Italy, South Korea, USA and Europe, and in some cases even China.

CHANGE IS HERE

“The Indian cutting tools industry is able to manufacture most of the products in India. There are few exceptions which could be due to niche application or low demand in the market. However, we still see import of tools from Taiwan, Korea, Japan, China, etc., because of their competitive pricing and marketing network,” points out Vivek Kumthekar, GM & business head (MTS), LMT Tools India.