COIMBATORE: The Coimbatore District Small Industries’ Association will focus on giving an edge to small-scale units here on the raw material front, according to K. Ilango, its newly-elected president. He told presspersons here on Thursday that tackling the raw material prices was a challenge to the units now.
For some of the materials, the prices had shot up at international level.
Apart from efforts to procure the materials in bulk, the association would educate its members on sourcing raw materials at competitive prices, planning procurement, and getting an increased price from customers for the final components.
The association also appealed to the Government to ease restrictions on import of raw materials so that the industries could source the materials collectively.
Another area that the association would focus on would be new laws.
The industries should be educated on how to approach the changes in laws, he said.
The problems faced by the industries in different clusters were almost the same.
By helping the units here cope with the changes they would be able to move ahead of their counterparts in other parts of the country.
A large number of workers from other States were employed in the foundries and engineering units.
However, most of them were unskilled.
Mr. Illango said huge funds were available with the Government for training and “we want to use it for the benefit of the industries here.”
The association and the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Institute had trained youth in foundries and the graduation ceremony of the first batch would be held on June 26.
