Amritsar: Russia-Ukraine conflict hits local units hard

Tribune News Service

Neeraj Bagga

Amritsar, March 9

Spiralling steel prices coupled with competition posed by China-made products have forced most of the local wire drawing, nut, bolt, nail and screw manufacturing units to close down their operations.

Many of them have scaled down its production. Auxiliary industries such as zinc and chrome plating units besides wire drawing are also facing the heat.

Considerable hike in the price of steel, a key raw material in manufacturing these products coupled with import of finished hardware products from China have upset the local industry, which otherwise provides jobs to thousands of skilled workers.

China is providing a lot of drywall screw per tonne at less than our rate. Above this, traders are taking the benefit of Rs10,000 per tonne on under-billing import. So, local industry is unable to withstand the difference of Rs20,000 per tonne, apart from rising steel prices. —Samir Goyal, a leading hardware manufacturer

A couple of years ago, the city was considered a leader in the manufacturing of screws in the country. Price of steel wire rod per tonne has climbed to Rs70,000 as against 55,000 tonne over a month ago. Since most of the 120 units here fall in the cottage industry, they are unable to absorb the price rise, which witnessed steepest rise since Russia invaded Ukraine.

Nearly 30 per cent increase in the price of wire rod was extreme for the industry facing extreme competition from China.

Samir Goyal, a leading manufacturer of hardware, said: “China is providing a lot of drywall screw per tonne at less than our rate. Above this, traders are taking the benefit of Rs10,000 per tonne on under-billing import. So, local industry is unable to withstand the difference of Rs20,000 per tonne, apart from rising steel prices.”

He said a majority of the imported shipment from China was coming from Gujarat.

The city, which has been a hub, has received a setback after considerable hike in the price of steel, said Vikesh, operating a wire drawing unit. He said there were around 40 units under this category and they were forced to scale down their rolling out production to escape losses.

Sunny, a proprietor of a plating unit, said there were about 30 plating units in the city, which provide zinc and chrome plating on steel products. “Trend in price of iron has been upward since January as post Covid-19, China entered the international market aggressively,” he said. Notably, this has hit the income of labourers as most of them are hired on daily wages.

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