Machine tools industry gears up for big play

By OEM Update Editorial March 15, 2017 12:50 pm IST

Machine tools industry in India is gearing up to be one of the world’s top 5 machine tools manufacturing countries in the world in next 7 years, informed PG Jadeja, President, IMTMA – the apex body for the entire machine tool industry of India.

Is there any cause of concern for Indian machine tools industry over upcoming GST?
As a representative of machine tools industry, we do not foresee any concerns over implementation of GST. We are quite optimistic about its outcome. However, from our part, one thing is very clear – we need the demand should increase.

What is the ground reality as far as ‘Make in India’ is concerned?
Pressure begins to build on the government bodies to promote domestic manufacturing across the industry. Moreover, all stakeholders are getting aligned to partner in this ambitious programme.

Also, one of the core objectives of ‘Make in India’ is to improve ease of doing business. Today the investment climate has really improved which is clearly evident from increased FDI inflows.

What is your growth forecast?
In the last 9 months (i.e. Apr – Dec 2016), the machine tools industry has achieved growth of over 16 per cent. We expect that the similar kind of growth will continue during the next 5 to 7 years.

Is there any decline in import numbers post make in India as far as machine tools industry is concerned?
Significantly, import for machine tools has come down to 55 per cent from a huge 70 per cent 5 years back. Though ‘Make in India’ is a relatively new programme started only in 2015, we have witnessed around 5 per cent decline in import volume since it was launched.

As the President of IMTMA, what is your core objective for the next 4 to 5 years?
We want to be one of the world’s top 5 machine tools manufacturing countries in the world in next 7 years.

PG Jadeja,
President, IMTMA