SMEs chip in with producing medical oxygen

Supply of other industrial gases takes back seat

Hyderabad: Several small and medium enterprises are now focused on producing medical oxygen to complement the effort happening in the State. For this, they are using existing industrial gases making units.

This has resulted in many units curtail their mainline operations due to the shortage of industrial oxygen and other gases. The affected segments are manufacturing, engineering, welding and galvanising and allied areas.

---

“There are many units that are producing medical oxygen. This is the need of the hour. Many units producing industrial oxygen are upping its purity to make it medical-grade. However, operations of other units are getting affected due to non-availability of industrial gases,” said K Sudhir Reddy, president, Telangana Industrialists Federation.

This apart, SMEs in general are seeing a shortage of raw materials or are faced with their rising costs. “Steel was earlier Rs 35 a kg and now is being sold around Rs 60 a kg. Same is the case with polymer, which is now being made available at Rs 140 a kg from the earlier Rs 80 a kg. The prices of cement too have gone up from Rs 220 a bag to Rs 330 a bag,” he said.

The restrictions in the movement of vehicles due to the night curfew earlier and the lockdown, which is extended till May 30, has affected the supply chains, he said. The situation is likely to stay the same for a few more days, he said.

The SMEs are once again seeing some of their labour migrate to their respective places. However, the number is comparatively lesser compared to last year, he said adding that the production is some units is also affected as several of their staff members are affected by Covid.

“The SMEs are faced with a series of problems. They are not able to come back to normalcy. They have to continue to service their loans and pay the installments despite lower production or no production,” he said.

The industry body president said that though emergency credit lines have been announced last year as well as this year, they are not really helping the industrial units. “There are many rules that need to be complied with to access the emergency loan channel. These are not possible for small units. These schemes benefit only the bigger units. Anyway, these are not a grant but a loan. Accompanying interest for these has to be repaid. What SMEs are looking for is immediate support,” he said.

---

Now you can get handpicked stories from Telangana Today on Telegram everyday. Click the link to subscribe.

Click to follow Telangana Today Facebook page and Twitter .

---