Kovai Pumps still the best

A lion’s share of the production is taken over by the micro units where pump manufacturing is a cottage industry. Here a house is attached to the unit. Seventy components make a pump. The components need many manufacturing units for casting, manufacturing, welding, grinding and winding. This makes it a major employment generating industry in Coimbatore. Peelamedu, Avarampalayam, Papanaickenpalayam, Singanallur and Thadagam are the micro pump manufacturing hubs in the city. Avinashi in Tirupur district too houses a sizable number of units but get the components from Coimbatore. 

Coimbatore Pump Manufacturers Association (COPMA) president K Maniraj said that Coimbatore’s share in pump production started dropping about five years back, after workers from other States started working in pump manufacturing units. “Such units have mushroomed at Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Production at their place has helped them save transportation cost. Quite a few companies are mushrooming in Gujarat but Coimbatore retains its position as the number one pump and motor manufacturer for its quality,” he said. There are over a dozen internationally renowned major manufacturers in the city. 

Project Coordinator of Scientific and Industrial Testing and Research Centre (SiTarc) and leading pump manufacturer KV Karthik said that the Indian submersible pump industry accounts for a mere one per cent in the global market. Of the city’s annual turn out that is estimated at Rs. 5,000 crore, the export market is a mere Rs. 200 crore. “With the MoU inked with the Department of Heavy Industries last week we are striving hard to make stateof-the-art pumps, with the support of leading research institutions. We are hoping that the export share of the city will cross Rs. 1,500 crore in the next three years,” he said.

Micro pump makers hit the most, post demonetisation

Pump and motor manufacturers in Coimbatore are no exemption to the crisis following demonetisation of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 currencies. But micro industries have suffered way more than the large manufacturers as the smaller units are still primarily operating on a cash and carry mode from purchase of raw materials and components to paying the labourer’s wages.

Coimbatore Pump Manufacturers Association (COPMA) president K. Maniraj said that close to 60 per cent of the production and sales of micro units has been affected. “About 25 per cent of the micro industries are not functioning for two or three days a week as they are unable to pay wages for their labourers due to unavailability of cash in lesser denominations,” he said. According to him, the large units did not face such problems as they were streamlined business done on a cashless mode. “They even have RTGS mode of transferring salary to their employee’s account. The daily wage of a helper in micro and small units is Rs. 250 for a 8-hour shift and Rs. 500 for a skilled labourer. 

With the cap on withdrawal we are unable to pay them,” he observed. Sale has also been affected as more than 60 per cent of pump sale is in cash. Hundreds of pump sellers on Papanaickenpalayam and Nanjappa Road, have gone without business for days. “Sixty per cent of our buyers are farmers. Most of them coming from as far as Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala bring cash for purchase as they don’t know the price of the pump. They come in groups and visit a few industries before deciding on where to buy,” says K. Manimaran. This makes it impossible for them to bring a demand draft. On the other hand, most of the buyers are new to the sellers and manufacturers, due to which they are unable to rely on the cheque payments made by the buyers. This has left the buyers and sellers waiting. “We are thinking about getting Point of Sale (POS) swipe machines for our units to make it easier to sell pumps at such tough times. We don’t know how far this is going to be successful,” Mr. Maniraj said and added that it would take time for pump and component manufacturers to switch to the e-payment mode.