Coimbatore: Members of the Federation of Coimbatore Industrial Association protested in front of the south taluk office here on Tuesday, urging the Union government to take necessary steps to control the price hike of raw materials.
Speaking to reporters, J James, coordinator of the association, said industrialists had been, of late, facing problems one after another. “After the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic, it is only now we are trying to beef up our production. Increase in the price of raw materials by 30% to 140% has come as a big blow to us. The Centre hasn’t taken any steps to control the price hike so far.”
The foundry owners sought the Centre s intervention to control the rising prices of raw materials.
Speaking to journalists on Monday, A Sivashanmuga Kumar, president of Coimbatore Tiny and Small Foundry Owners Association (Cosmafan) said, “Most of the foundries are badly affected during the lockdown period and after a long struggle, it is only now we have started to increase the production. The raise in raw materials price has come as another blow to us.”
Pointing out that the prices of the raw materials have been increasing around the same time since the last four years, he said, this year, along with the main raw materials allied components prices have also increased by 116%.
COIMBATORE: A sudden increase in raw material prices has prompted the Federation of Coimbatore Industrial Association (Focia) to urge the central government to form a price monitoring committee and fix a cap limit on the prices.
“Price of steel, copper, aluminium and zinc has gone up by 16 to 25% in the last two months. That of materials like PVC pipes and ABS plastic have gone up by 140%,” Focia coordinator J James told reporters on Wednesday.
The last time industries witnessed such a price rise was in 2017, when the central government introduced goods and service tax (GST), he said. “After struggling for months, we have started to recover from the brunt of Covid-19 pandemic. But due to the price hike, companies are forced to reduce production.”