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Manufacturers of consumer durables components should be protected with tariff or non-tariff barriers to enable vendors to invest in the ecosystem to make localization in India successful, industry players said on Monday. Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) will also need to invest in the development of the supplier ecosystem for the domestic industry to reduce costs and compete globally, said participants at the CII Consumer Electronics and Durables Summit 2024. can be

Addressing the summit, Kamal Nandy, Business Head and Executive Vice President, Godrej Appliances, said, “We have to have protection or some barriers to really get the confidence of the vendors to invest. So the tariff barrier is very important. ”

Giving the example of compressors for refrigerators, he said that with a capacity of 18 million in the country, we still import refrigerator compressors while the market is only 14 million. “Despite having the potential, we are not utilizing the potential and we are talking about indigenization,” he added. So, we have to put up barriers, we have to create tariff barriers or non-tariff barriers to ensure that. Vendors coming into this ecosystem have the confidence to invest in manufacturing and be part of the ecosystem.” The cost of manufacturing these components is higher than what can be sourced from China, he added. This is one of the major challenges, says Sundaresan Narayanan, Managing Director of Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Ltd. The heart of the air conditioning system is that we achieve scale I believe India is at a point where we will see the scale move up very quickly,” he added.

Narayanan said that from the point of view of economies of scale at the moment, it doesn’t really add up.

Compared to China, which has “more than ten times the production capacity of China,” he said, “that’s what helps them make these types of parts locally and then not just for their domestic use.” for, but actually in the outside world as well.”

Atul Khanna, vice-president, LG Electronics India Pvt Ltd, agreed that while there is a need to reduce the import burden, economies of scale are necessary to drive it forward, otherwise there are many cost-effectiveness issues and challenges. will be faced by manufacturers in India.

Nandi also emphasized that OEMs have to play a bigger role and take responsibility for building the vendor ecosystem in India.

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