Our Bureau

Coimbatore , Sept. 5

THE Centre should come out with a Technology Upgradation Fund (TUF) for the foundry industry, on the lines of a similar fund launched for the textile sector, to enable it to capitalise on the emerging global outsourcing opportunities, according to the Southern India Engineering Manufacturers' Association (Siema), Coimbatore.

In a memorandum presented to the Union Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, who was on a visit to Coimbatore today, Mr C.R. Swaminathan, President, Siema, said many MNCs from the US, Europe and the Far East were outsourcing components such as castings, forgings, pumps, valves and so on. China, Taiwan, Brazil and Korea were the major beneficiaries of this outsourcing binge.

He said the Indian auto component industry was growing at a fast clip in meeting global, component requirements and the domestic foundries and forging companies have built up capabilities in component manufacture. Since the country has high engineering and design skills, there is a large business opportunity waiting to be tapped.

Mr Swaminathan said the foundries should invest in latest technologies such as high pressure Lines in place of hand- moulding and machine-moulding, sand reclamation, automotive core making machines and so on. Since the foundry industry was capital and labour-intensive, the entrepreneurs were not able to make the requisite investments to meet the expectations of the foreign buyers.

The foundry industry needed a TUF to upgrade itself and scale up capacities, just as in the case of textile industry. He wanted the Finance Minister to assist the foundry sector in getting a Technology Upgradation Fund, which would, apart from giving a push to the foundry sector, would also bring large-scale investment to the industry.

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