Impact of COVID-19 on welding & cutting equipment industry

November 4, 2020 11:49 am

Welding and cutting equipment are critical components in almost all of today’s worksites. As per a Persistence Market Research report, “The market of welding and cutting equipment is expected to grow at a substantial rate through 2020. Some of the major drivers contributing the overall market growth of welding and cutting equipment include increasing demand from the energy, automotive and construction industries. Slow growth of the ship building, aerospace and defense industries are expected to pose challenge to the growth of welding and cutting equipment market.”

The report adds, “Countries that are part of the BRIC group (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) are considered to record the fastest market growth in the coming years.”

Laser welding offers several technical advantages, such as deep narrow welds, minimal distortion, and ease of automation, over conventional welding procedures. According to a report published by Technavio, the global laser welding machine market size is expected to grow by USD 246.50 million.

Commenting on the impact of COVID-19 on Indian industries, V.V. Kamath, Managing Director, Fronius India Pvt Ltd said, “The COVID-19 pandemic has affected worldwide and all the industries are having the strain due to the effect of the same. However the governments have taken a lot of steps in improving the situation. In India, the government has put in lots of efforts in promoting the manufacturing sector with the ‘Make in India’ and ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ schemes and also announcing special focus on MSMEs with special schemes. This has helped the manufacturing industries a lot to improve the situation. Also after a long time, the automotive industry is also reviving and the year-on-year comparison is showing positive growth.”

Like many other industries, welding and cutting equipment industry has also got affected due to COVID-19. Highlighting the impact of COVID-19 on welding and cutting equipment industry, he said, “As far as the welding and cutting equipment industry is concerned, we are directly connected with the manufacturing industries. The manufacturing industry has few challenges like the migrant labour, uncertainty of the future and thereby lack of investment on capital equipment and also the inconsistency in the orders from OEMs etc. With all these now the industry is reviving slowly and meeting the challenges.”

Mr Kamath further suggests, “What is now important is to focus on Total Cost of Production (TCOP) instead of Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). The TCO is not only the cost of machine plus running cost; it also includes the machine not running due to breakdown or idle time etc. Hence, we need to make right investment on equipment that will give good life, quality and improves productivity instead of going for cheaper imports from eastern World especially China. We at Fronius offer the best TCOP to our customers and we are also seeing that this trend for investing on quality product is increasing very rapidly and customers seeking for the long-term players instead of the ‘fly by night’ companies.“

Fronius India Pvt Ltd is headquartered in Pune and having regional offices at Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Gurgaon. More than 28,000 Fronius machines are installed and working in the field of Indian market.

“Fronius International is in the celebration of 75 years globally and with the commitment to India with its own new facility in Bhosari near Pune soon. It is an assurance to Indian market that Fronius India will support the Indian customers with its world-class products and services with its ‘permanent address’ in India,” Mr Kamath asserts.

Manufacturing industry has few challenges like the migrant labour, uncertainty of the future and thereby lack of investment on capital equipment and also the inconsistency in the orders from OEMs etc.
V.V. Kamath, Managing Director, Fronius India Pvt Ltd