SIEMA Will Focus In Inovation
During the next two years, the Southern India Engineering Manufacturers’ Association (SIEMA) will focus on facilitating innovation in the member units for further growth of the engineering and pumpset manufacturing sector. According to its newly-elected president Jayakumar Ramdass, Coimbatore manufactured the first water pump and electric motor in the country. In the 1970s and 80s, Coimbatore’s share in the domestic pumpset market increased tremendously. However, despite the country’s economic growth hovering around nine per cent during the last two years, Coimbatore’s market share slumped to 45 per cent from 65 per cent in the pumpset market. Speaking at the annual general meeting of the association here on Wednesday, Mr. Ramdass said the units here enjoyed just .075 per cent share in the global pumpset market and should innovate to increase the share to three per cent by 2020. “We propose to expose the members to various design concepts and international markets and thus facilitate innovation,” he said. Some of the programmes planned for this purpose were foreign visits and importing pumps to study new designs.
“High technology and specialised material will provide competitive edge to the manufacturers. We also need to diversify into industrial and process pumps where the requirement, growth and profitability are higher.” Outgoing president C.R. Shanmugasundaram said the industry was gripped with problems such as hike in raw material prices, skyrocketing industrial land prices, labour shortage and appreciation of rupee against the dollar. He urged the members to make use of the product die and mould centre established by the Coimbatore Industrial Infrastructure Association. The centre was running two shifts now.
The Bureau of Energy Efficiency had finalised the efficiency norms for the fast moving monosets and submersible pumpsets used for agriculture. It was yet to announce the date of implementation of these norms. An early introduction of the norms would result in energy conservation and help growth of the organised sector, he said.
