SURESH P IYENGARMumbai, September 1

Shetron, a mid-sized metal con-tainer manufacturer, had to re-fuse a huge order for metalcans to pack mango pulp dueto the shortage of tinplate.

Despite sharp rebound in de-mand for metal packages, thecompany expects its produc-tion to drop 30-40 per cent thisyear to about 11,000 tonnesagainst 16,000 tonnes loggedlast year.

Like Shetron, many smalland medium-sized metal con-tainer makers are cuttingdown on their production dueto the sharp drop in import oftinplate/tin-free steel.

The slowdown in produc-tion comes at a time whenMSMEs are limping back to

normalcy from Covid disrup-tion with the governmentstimulus.

The industry processes 7lakh tonnes of tinplate intocontainers, easy-open ends andpeel-off�s. Domestic tin supplystands at about 4.50 lakhtonnes, with Tata Steel and JSWSteel being the dominant play-ers, while imports make up forthe rest.

BIS certifi�cationImport of tin plates has almostcome to a standstill post imple-mentation of the mandatoryBureau of Indian Standard cer-tifi�cation for importers. Indiaimports tinplate largely fromthe US, China, Germany, Japanand Belgium. Overall, the in-dustry expects tin can and con-tainer production to drop 30-40 per cent this fi�scal.

Diwakar S Shetty, ExecutiveChairman, Shetron said invent-ory at both the manufacturing

and user industry has long ex-hausted as the entire supplychain works on in-timedelivery.

Given the uncertainty on tin-plate supply, most can andpackaging producers havestopped taking fresh orders, headded.

Price hikeThe quality control order man-dates overseas tinplate export-ers to register with BIS and ob-tain certifi�cation for tappingthe Indian market. For interna-

tional tinplate suppliers, Indiais fairly a small market; so, theyare not keen to get into lengthyprocedures and have stoppedsupplies to India, said a metalcontainer company executive.

Taking advantage of the situ-ation, domestic tinplate sup-pliers have increased prices by60 per cent since last Octoberto ₹�1.15 lakh a tonne, he said.

“If government does not actnow, all the guarantee-freeloans and other concessionsgiven for SMEs as Covid reliefthrough banks will go downthe drain and NPAs will startrising,” he added.

RS Sodhi, Managing Director,Gujarat Cooperative Milk Mar-keting Federation (Amul), saidsupply chain disruptions arebrewing and will accentuatefurther, especially for thosewith limited raw materialbandwidth.

“The disruption has come ata time when we had targets to

increase manufacturing moreproducts, which are expectedto be in high demand, espe-cially in the upcoming festivemonths,” he added.

Amul uses tin cans for pack-aging ghee, cheese and othermilk-based health drinkswhich see good demand dur-ing the festival season.

With an annual turnover of₹�10,000 crore, the metal pack-aging industry employs about1 lakh people and is dominatedby the MSME sector.

Sanjay Bhatia, President,Metal Container Manufactur-ers Association, said the qualityand control order has led to acomplete ban on import ofnon-prime materials requiredby the metal packaging in-dustry for various non-criticaland non-edible products suchas paints, chemicals, stationeryitems, which was mainly re-quired by the units in the mi-cro and small sector.

Tin-package producers see 40% fall in outputImport of tin sheethit by BIS qualitycontrol order