The Iran war is starting to hit India’s small manufacturers
· Scroll
In Coimbatore, S Surulivel is bracing for losses. His foundry, which does welding, cutting and fabrication work, relies on gas cylinders. “We use five cylinders every day,” said Surulivel. “We cannot work at all if we have no gas.”
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Up north in Panipat in Haryana, Yashpal Malik’s textile dyeing unit stopped operations by the second week of March after he ran out of gas. Gas is crucial fuel for the boilers to produce steam. “There is no work in dyeing that can happen without steam,” said Malik. “Now that gas supply is not there, how can operations continue?” Panipat has about 10,000 textile manufacturing units, of which Malik estimates that about 1,000 are involved in dyeing.
As the war on Iran enters its third week, its effects are starting to ripple out across India. Small-scale manufacturing and industries, from textiles and dyeing to automobiles and plastic, are struggling to continue operations due to the gas shortage or are facing an increase in the cost of raw materials, putting businesses and worker livelihoods at risk.
The stakes are especially high for them. Like Surulivel, who has signed a one-year tender for railway supplies and must provide the required number of equipment every month. “If there is a delay in supply,...