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Indian tread rubber manufacturers are continuing to face major challenges post-Covid in the export Asia and the Middle East.
COMPANY
REPORT
Telangana based Vamshi Rubber has succeeded in opening new international markets in the recent past, finding new customers for its tread rubber in neighbouring Bhutan and also in Bahrain. While Bhutan is among the key markets for Indian tread rubber, Bahrain remains a strong market due to the presence of the Indian diaspora in the region. Interest- ingly, Vamshi has also found another new customer in Eu- rope, having consistently supplied to Turkey in recent years.
Africa is regarded as key market for Indian tread rubber due to strong Indian diaspora in the region. As a result, almost all the major Indian brands have considerable presence and ac- ceptance in Africa.
Currently, the African market is facing a shortage of US cur- rency, which has been impacting imports. “A drastic shortage
of dollars has affected both small and big African businesses, many of whom now struggle to access the hard currency in order to facilitate essential foreign transactions such as raw material imports,” informed R Surendra Reddy, Managing Di- rector, Vamshi Rubber Limited.
Vamshi Rubber is hoping for return of normalcy in the key African market so that supplies to the region pick up. “Africa is among our major export markets, and the shortage of dol- lars is delaying the opening of LCs. We hope the currency sce- nario resolves in the near future and exports to the region recovet to the pre-covid phase,” he said.
Vamshi has had a presence in the US market for many years, and the company has now restarted shipments to the region following the pandemic. “Exports to the US market have re- sumed, but they have not yet achieved the same consistency as in the pre-covid phase,” said Reddy “We are now supplying a container-load once in a quarter.”
Vamshi operates a tread rubber manufacturing site on the outskirts of Hyderabad, the capital of Telangana state. The plant produces 300 to 350 tons per month, of which around 50 tons is exported, mainly to Turkey, Africa and the Middle East.
In addition to its export initiatives, Vamshi is also penetrating into new territories in the Western and North-Eastern part of the Indian domestic market. “We have expanded our cus- tomer base in the states of Maharashtra, Assam and Chhat- tisgarh recently,” said Reddy.
The company is also restructuring its sales network country- wide, economising its warehouse operation. “Now the Chan- digarh based warehouse is also handling Delhi to cater to the North Indian market as it is futile to have two warehouses in the North, especially after the rolling out of GST in the coun- try. Now, we are maintaining one warehouse in the North and West and two each in the East and Southern part of the country,” he explained. Now theVamshi warehouse network includes one in Chandigarh (North), Ahmedabad (West), two each in Kolkata and Guwahati (East) and Bengaluru and Hy- derabad (South).
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