By Lily Bearings
©2004-2008
The Government of India's Wholesale Price Index for January 2009 fell 0.2% overall, signaling continued weakness in the manufacturing sector.
The portion of the Index tied to "Machinery and Machine Tools" rose 0.2%.
However, the ball bearing manufacturing component fell by a dramatic 1%, seen as a likely indicator of prolonged struggles for India's bearing manufacturers looking to recoup higher materials and operating costs.
India's figures are significant because the country is often the low-cost producer for ball bearings, and because its bearing industry is the market economy stand-in for China's bearing industry (as a non-market economy) when the U.S. performs antidumping calculations.