India has woken up to opening its economy by opening different regions phase wise. After around 45 days of complete lockdown of the entire country, the government has allowed opening of the shops in Green and Orange zones. With restrictions and safety advisory, different markets have begun to open, where few are on alternate days and few on daily basis. From 5th of May, there has been a gradual opening up of the markets in different parts of India that has resulted in to some material demand in first week after opening.
The ongoing sites are opening up but the shortage of workforce and uncertain supply routes have attributed to weak recovery till writing this news. According to gathered data, on an average 40 percent of the shop owners are coming to shops where as many are still shut. The confidence is very low and fear is high that is big hurdle for operations of shops. So far, 60 to 70% of the markets have started activities but the demand for panel products are hardly at 15% of what it used to be in Pre Corona stage. A report gathered by Ply Reporter team from different markets from 4 to 18th May found that the shops have hardly achieved 20% of business volume on an average per day basis.
There are many challenges including lesser stocks, manpower shortage and fear among people, says Mr. Anurag Patel from Bangalore. Much of the work is coming from pending or ongoing sites, but there is no sign of orders from new sites that were being planned before Covid spread. Another Nasik based dealer added that whatever material we have in stock, the sales are being done with old inventory. Dealers are facing the problem of material supply irregularity because many of the manufacturing units are yet to start. Mr. Naresh Chaudhary of RB Glass, Bangalore said that Sales are very slow at almost 25% of the previous one. People are in fear and due to that work at apartments have not been started, neither outsiders are allowed to enter there.
Till end of month of May, the state governments have allowed almost two third of markets to open up but on ground 60 percent of counters are visibly opened. Few important markets such as based at Indore, Surat, Ahmedabad, Bhopal etc have begun some movements but due to acute labor shortage, payments and fear ofcatching the pandemic, hardly a few have been able to sell more than 20 to 25%. The Ply Reporter analysis expect a sharper recovery in June compared to May.