ARTICLE AD BOX
Surat: With the war between Iran and Israel-US has cast a serious impact on the supply chain of raw materials and industrial fuels in the Gulf region and the disruption in shipping routes, the Southern Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SGCCI) has made a presentation to the Prime Minister and Gujarat chief minister to facilitate supply with demand for maintaining stable price system for industrial fuels and raw materials.
SGCCI president Nikhil Madrasi said that a large part of India’s industrial sector is dependent on raw materials, petrochemical derivatives, liquefied natural gas, crude oil and other essential industrial units imported from the Gulf region. The current situation in the Middle East and the disruption in shipping routes are having a serious impact on the availability of these important resources as well as their prices, due to which industries are facing many challenges.
Industries in South Gujarat, including Surat, especially in the textile, chemicals, petrochemicals, ceramics, engineering, steel rerolling, plastics and MSME sectors, are facing serious problems like shortage of natural gas and other industrial fuels, increase in prices of crude oil derivatives and petrochemical feedstock, disruption in the supply chain of imported raw materials and increase in freight and logistics costs due to global uncertainty.
Due to this situation, many industrial units are witnessing a decrease in production and increase in operating costs. Its impact is especially severe on gas-based industries. If this situation continues for a long time, it may have an adverse impact on exports, employment and economic activities of the entire region. Keeping this in mind, the Chamber has requested the Central and State Governments to create alternative sourcing arrangements to ensure adequate and uninterrupted supply of natural gas and LNG to the industries.
Furthermore, a policy should be formulated for relief measures for industries facing shortage of raw materials and fuels. It has also been demanded that import and logistics support be provided to facilitate supply to important industrial units and appropriate arrangements be considered to maintain price stability for essential industrial fuels and raw materials.
The SGCCI has further submitted that it is necessary to provide special assistance to the MSME sector, which is the most affected by the sudden supply disruption. Along with this, strict instructions should be given to fuel supply organizations and suppliers of crude oil based products to adhere to the highest ethical business standards and refrain from adopting any kind of excessive profiteering or speculative pricing in these sensitive times. The supply of fuel and crude oil based raw materials should be ensured by maintaining prices, so that unnecessary financial burden is not imposed on industries.
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