The lockdown has been extended till May 3, 2020, the wood panel & decorative industry is staring at Zero Work, No payments and mounting pressure of salaries & payments. With further rise in spread of COVID 19 cases, a genuine call is need to be made. In this period the Ply Reporter organised two webinars, the 1st “COVID19 - Challenges & Opportunities for Wood Panel Industry” was on April 12, 2020 and the 2nd “Challenges in Decorative & Panel Trade and Retail” was on April 16, 2020. For both of them we received a lot of comments on ZOOM and FACEBOOK live each.
Here we present you some of the select comments which are much relevant for the industry to have better understanding of the situation.
"Government will help or not, we have to solve our problems in our way with all innovative approach."
- Mr Aroon Patel, MD, Sharpex India Pvt Ltd
"It was a good initiative to know about the future of plywood industry and how to plan for the business after COVID19."
– Mr Sanket Kumar, Patna
"Shutdown the factory! Running will be more problematic with increased expenditure and overheads etc. China imports of plywood and furniture should be restricted, then the increased domestic consumption will help indigenous industry."
- Mr Rajat Jain, Ambience, Gurgaon, Delhi NCR
"In my opinion we should talk to our distributors and retailers for the liquidation of material, post covid-19 lockdown. We should make a proper action plan so that whole industry can collectively earn a profit by which every company can sustain in this pandemic losses.,"
-Mr Faizal Nawaz, Doha, Katar
"Govt should issue guidelines to bank so that banks can help the industries... by different means such as increasing the CC / or by overdraft limits, not taking the EMI of loan for 3-5 months. Industrialists and labour should maintain harmony and togetherness help each other, Keep the flow of money smooth. Request to all retailers/ distributors to help by giving payments, so that the industrialists can fulfil their basic needs for industry functioning and the labour residing into factories. Govt should issue guidelines to bank to help industries... by different means such as Increasing CC / or by overdraft limits and not taking the EMI on loan for 3-5 months."
– Mr Sanskar Saxena, Bareilly
"Why we are not united to raise our issue to the Government? My suggestion is to 1.Reduce GST rates, 2.Unite ourselves, 3.Reduce Import related to our industry, 4.Price our products as par with international market, 5.Understand labour problems and 6.Take advantage of Make in India initiative."
– Mr Nitish Panchal, Ahmedabad
"Some of the suggestions for plywood industries after lock down opens
1) Production of plywood should be strictly donein sizes in 8x4 only.
Advantages
a) More production in less time,
b) less stock burden for dealers/distributors,
c) Standardisation in plywood in industry,
d) Easy for ensuring timely delivery,
e) Door manufacturers should also decided standard sizes for the market to follow.
2) 2 to 3 point delivery system: Instead of delivering 25 to 30 tonnes to one dealer, divided to 2 or 3 dealers within a possible range.
Advantages:
a) Equal distribution of material,
b) Ease in payment collection,
c) Again less stock burden on dealers. Let’s use this opportunity to standardise plywood industry and also look for developing new business models instead of selling materials as cost price or loss."
- Mr Satish Bajaj, Partner, Satyam Hardware, Interior Concepts, Ahmednagar, Maharashtra
"Plywood manufacturers will go in losses only this year. Raw material rates are too high and I can't see increase in demand of plywood or its price in near future"
- Mr Shekhar Mittal, Owner, Shaurya International Plywood, Yamunanagar, Haryana
"At least govt can allow factories to run because labours are inside the factories. Strict rules should be taken by industries so that no one comes out to restrict the spread of this endemic."
– Mr Nihal Jalan, Executive Committee, Blooming Beacon, Chennai, Tamilnadu
"We are behind than China because of their quality product, which barred us to compete on international standard. We need to adopt higher skill standard to improve our exports."
- Mr Ravinder Singh Chadha, Delhi
"Manufacturers need support from Workers, Labourers, Government, Banks, Distributors & dealers... What the manufacturers are doing to support channel partners?"
– Mr Kalpesh Parmar
"More supply, less demand, how will a dealer for a Branded Category Ply/Veneer survive, as it is going to much more tougher .????"
– Mr Dheeraj Sawlani, MD, Dheeraj Ply and Veneer, Indore, MP
"It is realistic to expect the govern-ment to concede concessions like those being discussed right now. We are a developing country and the government's resources are already stretched w.r.t. the health and welfare aspects of its huge poverty stricken population. Government can't endlessly print money. It needs taxes for giving any subsidy. How should they prioritise? In the best of times, our industry has not selfregulated or asked its participants to contribute to nation building by paying its due taxes in full. We must use this crisis to introspect and improve our industry's perception vis-a-vis the government."
– Mr Ankur Sachdeva, COO, Kajaria Plywood Pvt Ltd.
"To this Mr Pragath Dvivedi said “What you said is absolutely true and shall be implemented by the industry. But, at this juncture, everyone needs support from government in any form, be it interest rates, banking support, imports curb etc. It is the need of the hour. Sir reduce the credit business in the market and the system can do it....because it's the main problem in our plywood industry which is making business harder for all."
- Mr Diptesh Patel, Thane, Maharashtra
"Plywood industry leaders should issue corporate bond to generate funds. Also in this scenario the debts will be cheaper than equity. Those dealers who support in whatever capacity to companies, they will reap the benefits when markets change for good. Times will change... then the channel finance will definitely help them. Moratorium won’t solve the problem because you will have to pay interest on deferred period. That will be adding on your woes. Furniture material is largely import based. Sometimes back, TV and Furniture were banned to boost Make in India... This is right time to implement that approach.
The organised industry will survive via stimulus. The unorganised sector will bleed. It is a sign that we better get organised. Mittal ji suggested... Channel finance... That is a viable suggestion... We need to stand behind each other. What do we retailers do??? Our debtors stopped receiving our calls... in all conditions want to pay supplier up but without my debtors pooling in... It will be very difficult...A great disadvantage... We are a major unorganised industry hence we are not represented well... How we use the stimulus? This is not a completely uncharted territory as pointed by Rakesh ji... We can take clue from that time and tabulate them to get necessary relief package from Govt. Also our industry is not represented well though our contribution to GDP and employment is substantial... Close to 1.25 lac crore... We need stimulus packages. We can also go for factoring process where bank takes care of our receivables at a certain discount."
- Mr Girish Jeswani, Self Employed, Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh
"Informative and knowledge sharing platform which brought the industry leaders views across the trade...Kudos to team Ply Reporter for this effort."
– Mr Amit Malhotra, GM Sales, Greenply Industries Ltd
"Great Brainstorming by our leaders and off course fantastic job done by Ply Reporter Team."
- Mr Raghuvansh Kumar, AGM, Action TESA
"Well done dear! Great initiative at this juncture! Nice to know, industry wants to export E0 & E1 grade plywood. We can help industry to produce so."
- Mr Umasankar Panda, Kolkata
"Good initiative! Will help to revive MDF and particle board industry? I feel that during lockdown period, almost everyone is staying home so all are able to find the real need of furniture in their homes and would like to upgrade and make their house more comfortable."
- Mr Raman Poddar, Formar VP, Operation, Hindustan National Gas Industries Ltd.
"Both people and products are important for the industry. Owners must think of all 4 Ps seriously. Only staff lay off is not the solution. They're the only investments which will revive your company in future."
– Mr Nitin Bokey, VP, Kailash Timber Industries, Mumbai
"A very good interaction! Instead of painting a gloomy picture, need of the hour is to address the immediate problem: Everybody concerned will be facing a liquidity problem for the next 6 to 9 months up to the time the country is back to normal."
– Ms Shilpa Sadani, Kolkata
"It was wonderful to see the Wood Industry working towards for solutions in this moment of crisis. Cutting cost, optimum utilisation of resources is the key. There are ways to reduce input grid electricity cost by 40% by utilising own waste generated!"
- Mr Rajesh Menon, Pune, Maharashtra
"Sir, maximum industry is unorganised. We all have a lot of funds, investments, and savings to be used for our crucial period in life. So, is that correct to expect every support from govt only. We all should use that investment."
- Mr Naveen Kumar, Gurgaon, Delhi NCR
"It is very necessary to stop furniture import as well raw boards and plywood to create demand. We should convey message to Government to review GST on wood based product which is directly related to farmers."
- Mr Anil Singh of Mannat Wood Work, Ujjain
"It was a great webinar indeed. Many important points were raised but I could most relate to and agree also is to ban Imports of Plywood and Furniture. This will not only help our country to boost the economy but will also the organised and unorganised both sector will be benefitted... Employment opportunities will also be generated in plenty."
- Mr Satish Lalwani, Proprietor, Aadharshila Plywood, New Delhi
"Channel will move without Sales force willingly or unwillingly. For few months, companies will work on payments with limited productions since limited customers will be there. Retailers will also sell materials to authentic customers only thinking about their safe payment from customers."
Mr Ratnesh Prasad, Branch Manager, Saburi Panels, Kolkata
"Great views and suggestions by respected panellists on plywood sector regeneration. Thank you Prahathji@Ply Reporter for organising this webinar."
- Aaditya Tulsian, Bhubaneswar, Odisha