Plywood factories at Yamuna Nagar have opted to reduce production hours due to ongoing timber shortage and rising workers shortage issues. Many of the producers are also facing difficulty due to slow down in sales. The payment delay and election induced retardness in business have also added to the woes of plywood industries. According to reports from Yamuna Nagar, many rented factories have closed their operations which were running on advance payments a few months ago. The ply board factories first decided to reduce their operations to one shift and now the news of running only for five days in a week is emerging from industry clusters within Yamuna Nagar.
"After 16 years of long time licensing for plywood industry had been opened in 2018, and the industry players were expecting for better business ahead, but the situation is just reverse and the brightness in the business has faded away" says Mr Satish Chopal, President, Jagadhari Panel Manufacturers' Association. He further adds that the Plywood businessmen are facing huge losses, so they have decided to run their factories for five days in a week till the market lifting does not improve. This situation has arisen due to unavailability of raw material and slowdown in plywood demand due to election this month.
Manufacturers say that the Payment is delayed. Produced material is in stock and operational cost is continuously rising. The raw material is getting costlier and timber price shoring up along with market fee has been creating another burden on it. The rising cost of product has pushed the industry to look better opportunity in other states.
The industry reasons that there is expansion in manufacturing units that's why the raw material cost has increased, on the other hand there is no change in price of finished products and fuel cost has also increased. These are the factors for the loss of profit of manufacturers.
In Yamunanagar nearly 250 new industries has come up recently, besides, the district has largest number of wood based industries (nearly 1300 for plywood, peeling and sawing) which require nearly 250 lakh quintals of raw material.