US$ 41 billion market in India:

Lanka can tap electronic market

Buyers confident of timely delivery:

Ramani Kangaraarachchi

The Sri Lankan electronic manufacturing industry has many opportunities of partnership to meet the requirements of the US$ 41 billion market in India with a professionally calibrated marketing strategy. TOS Lanka Executive Director Merrick Gooneratne told Daily News Business that buyers have renewed their interest following the war victory and political stability.

Merrick Gooneratne

“On time delivery of goods was a serious problem earlier due to security checks due to the conflict but the situation has completely changed now and buyers are confident of timely delivery of goods and placing orders,” he said.

He said that all major auto makers have set up manufacturing plants based in Chennai and India’s automotive industry running counter to global trends is experiencing high growth. Maruti and Suzuki company exports have nearly tripled to a record of 14,847 vehicles in August 2009.

The market for mobile phones is on a phenomenal upward spiral with more than 500 million mobile phone users and additional 15 million users jointly every month.

“Therefore as far as the opportunities for the industry is concerned ,one has to only focus on the Indian electronic market,” he said.

The TOS Lanka factory in Biyagama

Gooneratne said the total value of exports in electronics is around US$ 400 million and employment generation is around 30,000 and value addition is in the range of five to ten percent. The Sri Lanka electronics manufacturing industry was focused on production of a range of electronic components targeted towards global export markets. These products included magnetic heads, ferrite cores, fibre optic related products, printed circuit boards, compact fluorescents, memory modules, toroidal coils, thermal outfits and energy saving lamps.

In more recent times companies such as Lanka Harness entered the zone at Biyagama manufacturing a range of Automotive Harnessing and Automotive Electronics for Toyota in Japan.

The most recent entry to the Sri Lankan market is Okaya Denk which is a major global player in electronic specializing in manufacturing of noise suppressors. “There are 100 percent Sri Lankan owned companies such as IE Electronics manufacturing electricity meters and transmission equipment and Nippon Marudhi Lanka manufacturing microwave products in addition to some of the companies located in the BOI zones,” he said.