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    More domestic companies step in to breathe oxygen into market

    Synopsis

    The government in the last two days has made the import duty nil for oxygen concentrators and similar products and has removed port charges for such products, which industry executives said will lead to improvement in supplies.

    5 ptiPTI
    Several companies are stepping in to beef up availability of oxygen concentrators by setting up plants and scaling up production and imports as the country continues to battle a severe shortage of oxygen in hospitals across states amid increasing Covid-19 cases.

    Domestic companies like Dixon Technologies and Intex Technologies are entering the oxygen concentrator segment while BPL Medical Technologies is looking to partner with other manufacturers to scale up production. Some companies like ITC and Xiaomi are importing these machines.

    Uttar Pradesh government has asked electronic companies like Samsung whether they can import or manufacture and improve supplies.

    BPL Medical Technologies has reached out to the Prime Minister’s Office to boost availability of components and has offered to share its technology with other manufacturers such as state-owned Bharat Electronics to scale up production.

    More Domestic Cos Step in to Breathe Oxygen into Market

    “Oxygen concentrator is not a high-end technology and can be easily scaled up if components are available which are sourced from the US, Japan and China,” BPL Medical Technologies CEO Sunil Khurana said. BPL can manufacture 1,000 to 1,500 units a month and partners like Bharat Electronics can scale it up significantly, he said.

    Contract manufacturer Dixon is drawing up plans to start manufacturing oxygen concentrators on a war footing. “Last year, we had done it for RT-PCR machines and could scale up quickly,” Dixon chairman Sunil Vachani said. “This year, we want to replicate the same for oxygen concentrators.”

    Mobile phone maker Intex plans to roll out concentrators by next month through a tieup with an overseas medical equipment manufacturer. “We are trying to get the products at the earliest since it is the need of the hour,” Intex director Keshav Bansal said.
    Industry estimates put the demand for oxygen concentrators at 1,500-2,000 units per day at present.

    The government in the last two days has made the import duty nil for oxygen concentrators and similar products and has removed port charges for such products, which industry executives said will lead to improvement in supplies.

    The country’s two largest manufacturers of oxygen concentrators, BPL and Philips, have sold out their stock and expect imports to arrive in the country in the next 7-10 days.






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