ADVERTISEMENT

How The Virus Spawned A PPE Kit Industry In India

More than 600 Indian firms are now making PPE kits for healthcare workers.

Central Reserve Police Force personnel check a protective suit manufactured at the CRPF Northern Sector staff camp in New Delhi, India, on April 15, 2020. (Photographer: Prashanth Vishwanathan/Bloomberg)
Central Reserve Police Force personnel check a protective suit manufactured at the CRPF Northern Sector staff camp in New Delhi, India, on April 15, 2020. (Photographer: Prashanth Vishwanathan/Bloomberg)

In the last week of March, Gautam Nair, a contract manufacturer for Ralph Lauren, Nautica, and Timberland, was assessing the potential impact of the lockdown when he received a call from the Ministry of Textiles. The secretary asked if his firm could make personal protective equipment for healthcare workers.

“I was told there was an acute shortage of PPE kits in the country,” Nair, managing director of Matrix Clothing Pvt., told BloombergQuint over the phone. “My first question was, ‘What is PPE?’”

“We had no clue about the price, processes, no idea at all. But I said, we will get this done,” Nair said, referring to production of masks, gowns, body suits, face shields and shoe covers, among other things, needed by doctors and nurses handling cases of Covid-19.

The ministry sent him a list of companies whose fabrics are approved for coveralls. And the other things needed to procure hot air seam-sealing machines, the most crucial element for making PPE kits that meet safety standards. In April, Nair’s three facilities in Gurugram, Haryana, started making 3,000-4,000 pieces a day of body suits and shoe covers and that has now doubled.

While the first cases of Covid-19 pandemic were reported in India, a nation of 1.3 billion, as early as January, the government started showing urgency to procure PPEs after the Prime Minister announced the lockdown nearly two months later to contain the virus from spreading. Amid a global shortage and the world’s strictest stay-at-home curbs that halted production of all but essential items, apparel makers sensed an opportunity.

Like Nair’s Matrix Clothing, Arvind Ltd., Shahi Exports Pvt., Paragon Apparels Pvt., and Richa Global Exports Pvt. Ltd are among more than 600 companies that have started making such gear. That, according to a government statement, has made India the second-largest producer of PPE kits.

Workers making  coveralls at a Matrix Clothing unit in Gurugram, Haryana. (Source: Matrix Clothing Pvt.)
Workers making coveralls at a Matrix Clothing unit in Gurugram, Haryana. (Source: Matrix Clothing Pvt.)

Before the virus struck, India did make PPE kits but largely relied on imports to meet demand. According to Dr Sanjiiv Relhan, chairman of the Preventive Wear Manufacturer Association of India, there were at least 100 firms making gowns, and body suits, and exported other gear including masks. But none of them produced seam-sealed body suits that use a special tape to make them fully safe. “Lack of standardisation and cheap kits from China never let the domestic market grow.”

According to Invest India, the nation alone is a Rs 7,000-crore (nearly $1 billion) market, and the global PPE industry is expected to touch $92.5 billion by 2025.

According to the Ministry of Family Welfare and Health, India has about 15.96 lakh PPE kits in the centre-state buffer and orders for another 2.22 crore have been placed.

‘Nightmare’

Nair and others expected teething problems, but they ran into bureaucratic processes and the confusion caused by the lockdown.

“We had a nightmare doing things,” Nair said over the phone from Gurugram. When Matrix received permission to open factories in Gurugram, nearby villagers were apprehensive about sending people fearing they would get infected. For procuring the machines, the company had to change three firms overseas to get them shipped to Delhi.

And it had to send its first samples to South India Textile Research Association, an autonomous body tasked with approving the kits. They needed four passes, one each from Haryana, Delhi, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, to ship those to Coimbatore. The first sample was rejected because he outsourced seam-tapping, causing quality concerns. Nair sent fresh ones when his own machines arrived.

Gaurav Uppal, owner of Richa Global that makes 10,000 pieces of PPE a day, paid 1.5 times the price of the machine because demand had surged and only a few airlines were operating. Movement of fabric within the country also took time, he said.

Paragon Apparels faced difficulty in finding workers to operate the machines. Roshan Baid, managing director of the firm, said, “It took us some time to settle down, and train employees to get the product right.”

Workers getting screened at Matrix Clothing’s Gurugram, Haryana facility. (Source: Matrix Clothing Pvt.)
Workers getting screened at Matrix Clothing’s Gurugram, Haryana facility. (Source: Matrix Clothing Pvt.)

Yet, all of them acknowledged that it would have taken longer had the government not fast-tracked approvals and permissions to reopen factories.

“I would get calls at 6:30 a.m. from the ministry asking about the status of my capacity and how I can improve, as they would have to update the minister, Smriti Irani, by 8 a.m.,” Nair said. “The crisis has given birth to a new industry.”

Bengaluru, Karnataka has become a major hub accounting for 50% of coverall production, according to the report by Invest India. Factories in Tirupur and Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu; Ahmedabad and Vadodara in Gujarat; Phagwara and Ludhiana in Punjab; Bhiwandi in Maharashtra; Dungarpur in Rajasthan; Noida in Uttar Pradesh; Gurugram, Haryana; and Delhi are also making the kits.

Lalit Thukral, president of Noida Apparel Exports Cluster, said the city alone has 25 units that have received approval and another 25 await clearances. Late arrival of machines from China caused delays but the cluster is working to boost capacity fourfold to 100,000 pieces a day, he said.

A Chinese Kit-Like Problem

As the fledgling industry gains heft, it faces the same problem that prompted concerns about Chinese kits: quality.

Cheap kits have flooded the market. Doctors in Ludhiana complained about the poor standard of PPE gear in May. A Kerala medical practitioner also wrote to the chief minister complaining about quality.

Rajan Sharma, national president of Indian Medical Association, said there is serious concern over quality. “So far, more than 25 healthcare workers we know have lost lives, and at least 5,000 are infected. We are trying to collect real-time data,” he said. If everyone is wearing a kit and people are still getting infected, that needs to be investigated, he said.

According to Ushik Gala, chairman of Suumaya Lifestyle Ltd., the problem is more than 70% of garment makers have jumped in. That, he said, poses challenges of cost, competition and quality.

Baid of Paragon Apparels said companies are making anything and everything without focusing on the right kind of fabric. “This is not the right way to do it. We need breathable fabric for doctors and hot seam-sealing machines.”

“People are coming out with Rs 200 kits and are showing SITRA certification. Even the packing is not standardised,” said Avinash Bhondwe, the president of the Indian Medical Association’s Maharashtra chapter. “There is no way to verify the kits if private hospitals want to procure them. Doctors are wearing whatever is being made available.”

Relhan said apart from ‘blood permeability test’ SITRA doesn’t look at other standards, not even sizes.

The kits are procured by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare through HLL Lifecare Ltd. and then distributed to states, based on needs. The health ministry, in a May 25 statement, said it’s applying stringent quality standards and PPE kits are procured only after approval by eight nominated laboratories.

HLL is conducting random tests of supplies. “In case of any failure, the company is being disqualified,” the statement said. And it made a Unique Certification Code, UCC-Covid-19, and tamper-proof sticker in indelible ink specifying details of the manufacturer mandatory.

Everyone BloombergQuint spoke with said there was a need for standards for fabric, material and pricing. It’s crucial for serious players who want to consider exports even after the pandemic is contained.

“We are hoping for a selective easing of export,” Nair said. He said the industry doesn’t want exports to take preference over domestic demand but certain segments, such as coveralls, can be opened.

Gala said Suumaya Lifestyle plans to start a new division for medical textiles. “The demand is set to grow and we feel that people would be more concerned about health sanitisation,” he said. Gala said his firm, that makes 35,000 pieces of PPE gear a day, is working on reusable kits.

Richa Export, too, is looking to set up a separate facility in the next four to five months.

But Relhan said exports should only be opened after putting standards in place. When quality matters, anyone supplying kits for as low as Rs 200 won’t survive as the cost of meeting standards will increase prices.

“If the export opportunity is opened without standards, every player will jump to export, and that will kill the opportunity that has opened for the industry after 18-19 years,” he said. The U.K. and other countries and have already blacklisted companies, and Indian manufacturers don’t want to be part of that list, he said.

Nair’s Matrix Clothing plans a separate division for PPE kits. And he is focusing on maintaining quality. “We may have to modify our factories to ensure clean-room and other standards that are not required right now,” he said.

He suggests that the government put out standards for fabric and only allow those who have in-house manufacturing capability with seam-sealing machines. “Otherwise, every gully would be making these kits, and it will be hard to control the quality.”