New Delhi: 'No slowdown in manufacturing'

Out of a total of 101 sectors reporting production, 23 sectors recorded an excellent growth rate of more than 20 per cent and 27 sectors recorded a high growth rate of 10-20 per cent, according to the survey by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Ascon, which tracks the performance of the various sectors of the industry.

In the survey, released here Saturday (August 4), 36 sectors registered moderate growth rate of 0-10 per cent while 14 sectors reported negative growth. The percentage of sectors in each category remained almost constant over the period April 2006 to March 2007, which reaffirmed that Indian manufacturing was on track.

While releasing the CII-Ascon Survey for April to June 2007, Satish Kaura, chairman, CII Industry Council, said: "It is good to see that 50 per cent of the manufacturing sectors have shown above moderate growth despite various pressures in terms of the appreciating rupee and hardening interest rates."

Sarita Nagpal, deputy director-general, CII, while agreeing that the manufacturing sector seemed on track, added a word of caution pointing to the fact that some sectors had moved from the high growth to the moderate growth sector as compared to full last year performance of the industry.

"These could be weak signals of a slow down and we must not ignore them," she added.

According to the CII-Ascon survey, cold rolled steel strips, pig iron, textile machinery, industrial gases, electric fans and microwave ovens, to name a few, were in the excellent growth category.

One of the new entrants to this category was electric two-wheelers in the auto sector, showing growth of over 100 per cent. Energy meters, abrasives, industrial valves, machine tools, water equipment, air-conditioners and vanaspati were all in the high growth category.

According to the CII-Ascon survey, out of the 27 sectors reporting sales, six sectors registered excellent growth, 11 sectors registered high growth, four sectors reported moderate growth and four sectors recorded negative growth. Four sectors have shown excellent growth in exports.

There were eight sectors in the high growth category, five sectors recorded moderate growth, while nine sectors registered a fall in exports.

- By Business Desk

The Statesman

Publication Date: 06-08-2007