The demand for bearing industry is derived from demand in two key user segments -

• Automobile
• Industrial sector

The automobile industry is the largest growth driver for OEM market as it accounts for almost 45% of total bearing market. Engineering sector, which accounts for 28% of total share, holds the second growth driver. Considering the high reliance of bearing industry on automobile sector, the fate of bearing industry is largely dependent on production of vehicles. The demand of bearing is also linked to heavy-duty industrial application in rolling stock, rolling mills, heavy earth moving equipments and other heavy machinery, accounting for 21% of total bearing market. However demand in the latter category is met through imports and therefore does not have significant impact on domestic growth .


Export-Import

Big players in Indian ball and roller bearing have been already exporting a part of their production to developed countries like US, Europe etc. Domestic players are already sensing the outsourcing opportunity and have initiated the process of manufacturing a range of bearings for meeting the requirements of global customers. The Indian bearing industry, especially the companies having technical/ financial collaboration with global players are expected to garner higher pie in export market.

30% of total demand for Indian bearing industry is met by imports. While a part of the imports come through official channels, there is also a huge volume of illegal imports. Legal Imports generally represent the specialized bearings not manufactured in India. There are a large variants of imported bearings, each holding a small market share in India.

While duty rates have come down over the last few years, a few countries like China, Russia, Eastern Europe dump their excess production at a very low rate. This leads to a huge price differential between domestic and imported bearings (almost 40-50%), encouraging imports.

Countries that hold the major share of the Indian bearing import market are Japan, Germany, China, Singapore, Russia, Romania, Sweden, USA, France, South Korea, UK, and Italy.