By Shalini Bhardwaj
New Delhi [India], April 3 : India's condom market, valued at USD 861 million (approximately Rs 7,100 crore), is facing rising production costs and supply chain uncertainties amid the global war crisis, with industry stakeholders warning of potential shortages and price hikes in key raw materials.
According to the sources, "The ongoing global shipping container shortages are causing delays in dispatch to overseas customers, and the ocean freight transit time increased as the Strait of Hormuz was suspended by major carriers and rerouting via Cape of Good Hope is adding 15-20 days to transit. Middle East airspace restrictions: key flight paths suspended, air freight capacity reduced, backlogs building for ready consignments."
Industry stakeholders are flagging a shortage of key inputs, including PVC foil, aluminium foil, poly, chemicals, and packaging materials, along with logistics disruptions and an increase in price of key petrochemicals.
"Production and order execution may be affected due to supply constraints and price volatility in key inputs such as PVC foil, Aluminium foil, poly, chemicals and packaging materials, along with logistics disruptions. 40-50 per cent price hike expected in Ammonia which is used in Condom production. There is an exorbitant increase in the price of silicon oil, causing market uncertainty," the stakeholders stated.
"We anticipate some shortage of raw material based on petrochemical products, which could affect the manufacturing of some of the pharmaceutical products," said Jatish N Sheth of the Karnataka Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Manufacturers' Association.
"There could be a shortage of packaging materials," he added.
One of the leading manufacturing companies, which produces 1,971 million pieces annually, has flagged that increases in logistics costs and key petrochemicals could push up prices of some pharmaceutical products.
However, one distributor said their stocks remain adequate for the near term.
"We at Meditree have sufficient stocks of the Moods range of condoms and can cater to the next four months' requirements. We have 12 products of Moods condoms range," said the India distributor for the Moods range of HLL.
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