Surgical equipment market shifts focus from trading to precision manufacturing

India has now become one of the top countries in Asia to import surgical instruments

Various innovations and newer applications are changing the dynamics of precision surgical instruments. India has now become one of the top countries in Asia to import surgical instruments.

Highlighting about the industry, Jayant Joshi, MD, RUJ and SRM Mechanics said, “Demand of precision manufacturing for the surgical instruments industry is nearly untouched and being fulfilled by traders who are mainly importers. At RS India’s Jaipur plant, the manufacturing processes and techniques like 5Axis Milling, turning, Swiss type turning, surface-, cylindrical- and centre less grinding, punching, laser cutting, bending, vacuum heat treatment, anodizing (aluminum and titanium), plating, powder coating, assembling under clean conditions is installed and available for all types of precision machines and assembled as required for B2B manufacturing.”

Pointing out that India has a huge potential in this sector, Switzerland-based scientist, Dr Rajendra Joshi, Chairman, RUJ and SRM Mechanics said, “India has a huge potential to overcome from being a trader dependent to innovative and precision manufacturing entity in surgical equipment market. By reducing import and producing cost-effective high-end products, the country will be able to save huge cost on healthcare spending. However, during the last few years, the Indian government has succeeded in attracting many Swiss, German, Japanese and US companies. Many of them have shown keen interest in setting up their manufacturing base in India.”

According to industry sources, many new players have made entries in this segment. SRM Technologies (Switzerland) is in a Joint Venture (JV) with RUJ Group (Jaipur); MAG Industrial Automation Systems (USA) has set-up a subsidiary in India; Heller (Germany) has formed a JV with TAL Manufacturing Solution; Glidemeister (Germany) has set up a tech centre in Bengaluru; Schuler (Germany) has entered into a JV with an Indian Company; MAUS (Italy) formed a JV with TAL Manufacturing Solutions; Rosa Ermando (Italy) has entered into a JV with UCAM of Bengaluru to set up a manufacturing facility in India.

As per industry sources, the Indian medical devices industry is currently sized at around $5 billion which is 6.9 per cent of the $ 72.6 billion Asia/Pacific industry size. The overall healthcare industry in India is valued at $160 billion, which is expected to reach $280 billion by the year 2020. India’s medical devices, surgical equipment and pharmaceutical industry are promising to grow significantly in the coming years and will emerge as cost effective supplier to the whole world. There are about 1800 domestic firms in the country, mainly MSMEs which are competing in the range of low to medium technology products.

Experts say that increasing number of minimally invasive surgeries is anticipated to accelerate the market growth. Road accidents, treatment of chronic diseases, increasing trend of plastic surgeries etc. are other trending causes to raise the demand for surgical instruments.