KOCHI: Kerala’s only major engineering enterprise, HMT Machine Tools, is facing an unprecedented financial crisis as its Kalamassery unit struggles to stay afloat. A profit-making public sector undertaking until 2022–23, the unit has slipped into heavy losses over the past two years due to a severe shortage of working capital, leading to production cuts and delayed project deliveries.
“If the Centre ensures even a 5% share of the `16,000-crore domestic market, HMT can regain its past strength,” the HMT Protection Committee said in a statement.
The committee also demanded immediate implementation of the HMT revival package announced by Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy in August 2024.
The demand was reiterated at the ‘Protect HMT’ convention held at the HMT Junction in Kalamassery on Friday, where CITU national secretary K Chandran Pillai inaugurated the session.
“HMT played a pioneering role in India’s industrialisation. Weakening such a strategic sector is a national loss. The revival package must be implemented without delay,” he said.
According to the HMT Protection Committee, though the company continues to receive orders, it lacks funds to procure raw materials and complete them. Employees have not received salaries for over three months and the management has reportedly been unable to assure when payments will resume.
Union leaders alleged that the Centre’s “faulty industrial policies and tilt toward privatisation” are crippling core industries like HMT. They also blamed the reverse auction tender system and diversion of orders to MSME units for depriving HMT of its rightful business share. Until the 1990s, HMT manufactured nearly 60% of India’s machine tools. Today, it accounts for less than one per cent.
CPM Ernakulam district secretary S Satheesh, K N Ravindranath, Deepa K Rajan, K N Gopinath, P R Muralidharan, K B Varghese, P M Mujeeb Rehman, and M G Aji also spoke at the event.