Covid corrodes prospects of city stainless utensil makers

CHENNAI: Stainless utensil manfucaturers in the city are struggling as the coronavirus lockdown has brought business to a standstill. Ony about 75% of the 1,800-odd units havereopened; the rest, employing more than 20,000 workers, have remained shut. The reason? Poor demand for stainless utensil.
These manufacturing units are located on Wall Tax Road, at Vysarpadi, Kodungaiyur, Tiruvanmiyur and Medavakkam.Each unit employs an average of 15 workers. They make household stainless utensils such as plates, boxes, containers and buckets.
The industry depends on orders from dealers from the state and other parts of the country. A majority of these units get regular orders from the wholesale stainless steel market at Parrys. According to industry sources, each unit records an annual profit ranging from Rs5 lakhs to Rs6 lakh, collectively generating a revenue of more than Rs100 crore every year. With hardly 25% of the units open, massive layoffs have left the skilled workers to look for greener pastures in other sectors.
V Neelamani, a utensil manufacturer at Wall Tax Road, said that survival has become a challenge. “When several are finding it difficult to buy food due to the current economic crisis, who will even think of purchasing steel utensils? Moreover, gifting stainless boxes in marriages and other social events has stopped since no such social events are happening on a big scale in the current situation," he said.
Tamil Nadu Stainless Utensils Manufacturers Association general secretary K Ganesh Kumar said small scale units are on the verge of closure since the employees are shifting to other sectors.