MUMBAI, May 13 (Xinhua) -- India's production cost as a percentage of sales has risen during the January-March quarter, as per the quarterly survey conducted by the industry body and released late Sunday.
The rise is seen due to increased cost of raw materials, wages, power cost, rising crude oil prices, increase in finance cost and rupee depreciation.
The quarterly survey is conducted to assess the sentiment drawn from responses of over 300 manufacturing units from both large and small segments with a combined annual turnover of over 50 billion U.S. dollars.
As per the survey, 72 percent respondents saw a rise in manufacturing cost during the quarter compared to 62 percent respondents last year.
High raw material prices, cost of finance, uncertainty of demand, shortage of skilled labor, high imports, requirement of technology up-gradation, low domestic and global demand, excess capacities among others were the reasons behind the rising production cost, the release said.
Overall, India's cement and ceramics along with textiles are expected to report strong growth while automotive, electronics, and leather and footwear will see low growth in the quarter, as per the survey.
The rest of the sectors mentioned in the survey including chemicals, fertilizers, pharmaceuticals, capital goods, metals and metal products, paper products and textile machinery will see moderate growth during the quarter.
