Morbi Ceramic Plants Hit due to Second Covid Wave
The ferocious second wave of Covid-19 cases has derailed Morbi-based ceramic tile makers’ plans to start production at their new plants. Commercial operations at several new plants in India’s largest cluster of the ceramic industry have been delayed by one to three months. Issues pertaining to procurement, delivery and installation of machinery, availability of construction material such as steel, shortage of workers and Covid-19-related restrictions have delayed the start of production at new plants in Morbi, said industry players. “The operationalization of our two new plants have been pushed back by around 45 days,” said Bhavesh Varmora, chairman, Varmora Group, which had last year started building two plants in Morbi for manufacturing vitrified tiles. The plants were expected to start commercial operations in April this year. One plant is expected to go on stream next month and the other will start production a month after that added Varmora. Anticipating robust growth in demand, especially from overseas markets, ceramic tile makers in Morbi had taken up construction of about 80 new plants in 2020. Many of them were expected to go into production in May and June 2021. “Procurement of machinery is hampered due to the shortage of import containers, and workers are also not easily available for construction due to the pandemic. Commercial production at many new plants will be delayed by two or three months,” said Mukesh Ughreja, president of the vitrified tiles division of Morbi Ceramic Association (MCA). “All activities pertaining to construction and commissioning of new plants have slowed down due to the second wave of the pandemic. Various services providers are facing problems of manpower as they currently operate with fewer workers,” said K G Kundariya, the owner of Wintel Ceramics Private Limited. “The new plants are facing delays in commercial production of up to four months. Those who targeted to begin production in twelve months will now take 16 months to start production,” added Kundariya, who planned to operationalize his new plant for making wooden planks by June this year but now expects to commission it in October. Meanwhile, existing plants are also operating at low capacity as tile demand from the domestic market has been affected due to the restrictions and lockdowns in several states to battle Covid-19. Exports to the international markets have also been affected due to the issues regarding availability of containers to ship tiles.
Tags : ALLIED Tiles growth covid19 Demand second Covid wave Morbi Ceramic Plants Hit