Sourcing · Bhawani Insights
Import, or cast in India?
A heavy-casting buyer's five-question test — lead time, freight, lifecycle accountability and the cost of silence when something fails abroad.
For twenty-five years the default answer for any single-piece casting above 60 tonnes was to import it. That default is now worth re-testing.
Freight, customs and a six-to-nine-month lead time are the visible costs. The structural one is response time: when an imported casting fails mid-campaign, the conversation happens across six time zones and two legal systems.
The five questions
1. What is the real lead time, gate to gate? 2. What does freight and insurance add per tonne? 3. Who answers a technical question, and how fast? 4. Can you witness the inspection? 5. What happens if it fails in year three?
India now pours single-piece castings to 120 MT. The question is no longer whether it can be done here — it is whether your specification has been re-examined since the last time you asked.
