Morbi's ceramic Kilns blaze again as fuel supply crisis eases

Morbi: It has been almost a month since Sukanya Nayak returned to her work, and the relief is visible on her face. The tiles factory labourer from Odisha was one of around 400,000 workers who had left this ceramic town in Gujarat, after the kilns turned cold in the wake of the Iran war that cut off natural gas supplies.

"We had to leave for home in March as the factory had shut down, but now that it has reopened, we are all back, and this is such a relief," she said-a sentiment shared by her colleagues from UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal.

From a total shutdown for two months between March and April due to the war and subsequent fuel shortage, the Morbi ceramic industry has rapidly bounced back as the supply of piped natural gas and propane picked up.


"As of now, out of 750 units, 725 are working with PNG while 15 more have started with propane," said Haresh Bopliya, former president of the Morbi Ceramic Association. "The war had hit us hard, but fortunately, the fuel supply got regularised really fast, and almost all the units have started working again," he added.

The war, however, has hit the industry where it hurts the most. "The production costs have escalated in a big way," Bopliya told ET.

"The average increase in the cost of production is now almost 80%, leading to an escalation of cost for GVT and vitrified tiles to ₹8 per square foot across the board," said Mukesh Ugreja, owner of a ceramic unit in Morbi. For wall tiles, the wholesale price has gone up to ₹180 from ₹130, he added.

The war had led to another crisis for the industry, as it drastically reduced foreign export. Now with an agreement reached between Iran and US to end the war, the factory owners are carefully watching the situation. "Yes, the news brings in a lot of relief, but the reality will only emerge in a week or ten days time when everything will be clear," Bopliya said.

Morbi accounts for about 90% of India's total ceramic production, and contributes roughly 13-18% to global ceramic demand, exporting to over 180 countries, including the US, UAE and various European nations. The annual turnover of the ceramic industry in the town is around ₹60,000 crore, including about ₹20,000 crore worth of exports. "Our exports had almost halved," said Bopliya, adding that the industry is now making up for the shortfall from the domestic market. "When the industry had shut down for two months, our own stock as well as that of our dealers was exhausted completely, and now the growing demand for tiles has come as a blessing," he said. The ceramic industry in Morbi is making an extra turnover of almost ₹1,000 crore a month from the domestic market, which in a way is somewhat making up for the loss in exports, he added.