Chennai sources reported that as the heat and dust over the closure of Vedanta’s Copper smelting plant in Thoothukudi is yet to settle down even after the state government ordered its closure two months ago, the Copper Consumers Association of South India (CCASI) say their industries are getting choked up due to lack of supply of raw material.
Meanwhile the Sterlite plant’s closure has added to their woes in not meeting the requirements of consumers and has thinned down the workforce in many small scale industrial units in the form of retrenchment. Accordingly the association has demanded the government to ensure alternate source of procuring the raw material copper, and thereby help about 50,000 industries in India to survive.
Moreover the Winding Wires Manufacturers
Association of India president Sudhir Kumar Agarwal has claimed that the sudden
closure of Sterlite’s copper plant has resulted in huge loss to winding wire
industry and impacting the production of all electrical and electronic
equipment. Furthermore he added if the closure continues, the industry will be
forced to import copper at an additional cost of about 5% more than domestic
prices, resulting in cascading effect for the ultimate user and can be highly
inflationary.
