India, according to eBearing research, continues to be the largest industrial economy plagued by counterfeit bearings. And the problem, according to numerous sources, continues to grow despite occasional crackdowns.

Although a wide array of India's trade organizations, industry representatives, government, police and customs agencies have targeted the widespread counterfeit bearing problem for years, their efforts have been hit-and-miss, failing to gain significant traction against the sheer volume of counterfeit bearings in the market.

According to several people we interviewed, entire sectors of India's industrial supply network are so overwhelmed by counterfeits that the sales volume of real, branded bearings is essentially nil.

Most often, the brands and packaging being counterfeited are still SKF, NTN, NSK, Koyo and other international brands. However, counterfeiting has now spread to regional brands, such as RFL, and even some Chinese brands are being counterfeited by other manufacturers in China.

Virtually all of the counterfeit bearings sold in India originate in China. They may be smuggled into the country already marked and boxed in counterfeit packaging. Or they may arrive in bulk with the counterfeit brand markings already etched. Finally, they may arrive unmarked and the counterfeit markings easily added later.

The final counterfeiting step is to find legitimate-looking packaging. This is relatively easy to source, as India is home to many small boxmakers willing to take on lucrative counterfeiting jobs. A number of manufacturers such as SKF have added anticounterfeiting measures to the packaging in an attempt to stem easy counterfeiting. But many buyers remain unaware of these anti-counterfeiting measures, and counterfeit vendors always have a ready explanation for packaging anomalies.

Counterfeits are most widespread, as expected, in the most price-sensitive sectors such as light-duty to medium-duty industrial ball bearings, along with smaller automotive and two-wheeler sizes. However, they can also be found at virtually every other level of the supply chain, and for a broad cross-section of applications.

The problem stems from several factors :

First and foremost, the lure of high profit from selling counterfeit bearings is often too much to resist ... counterfeits priced as deeply-discounted brand bearings can easily earn 1,000% profit margin for the seller.

Second, the risk of being discovered by authorities is relatively low; India's borders are notoriously porous and enforcement is spotty.

Third, the risk of the counterfeit being discovered by a customer is relatively low; despite ongoing efforts by major manufacturers to educate buyers and distributors, counterfeit bearings are extremely difficult for most buyers to identify. And buyers hurt their own chances here by continuing to focus primarily on price.

Fourth, distributors find counterfeit bearings are easy and inexpensive to source, and many have the resources to produce their own. Although most major manufacturers now include anticounterfeiting packaging measures such as holographic labels, special bags, etc., counterfeit packaging and markings on the bearings have also improved.

Finally, India's massively fragmented distribution system pits thousands of tiny, independent bearing vendors against each other to compete viciously for every sale. In that environment, the "race to the bottom" gets out of hand very quickly.

The porous border problem is unlikely to be answered soon. Border inspections often aren't detailed enough to pick up counterfeits, and there are a massive number of legitimate bearings coming over the borders at the same time.

India's fragmented distribution system is hard for many westerners to imagine. In and around Mumbai, for example, there are nearly 2,000 independent shops selling bearings. Kolkata has over 500, and Delhi has another 500 or so. Smaller cities have fewer, but even the smallest Indian towns often have more outlets than many major cities in the United States.

Most shops are found in loosely organized groups. For example, Delhi has the Motor Market, Naya Bazar, Guru Nanak Bearing Market, and others clustered on G.B. Road.

Outlets use a confounding array of descriptions to attach themselves with little risk to known brands such as SKF, Koyo, NSK, NTN, Timken, and others :

Choose one from Column II -- or -- choose one from Column I and one from Column II

authorized recognized certified established qualified

importer trader wholesaler dealer stockist

Some legitimate bearing manufacturers privately complain that the Indian government largely ignores the counterfeiting problem -- seeing only that bearings are an active and competitive trading sector, employing a large number of people, and with too few complaints from end users.

They point out that often the only times action is taken against counterfeiters or counterfeit sellers is after the manufacturer spends considerable time and effort tracking down and identifying the counterfeit sellers, tracing their sources, and tracking back the counterfeit packaging. They complain that raids and arrests happen only after the information has been gathered and presented "on a gold platter" to authorities.

For their part, end users are unable to complain about counterfeits if they don't know they've purchased counterfeits. In any case, sellers deny having supplied the bearings.

Counterfeit bearing failures have become particularly problematic across India's textile industry, where low quality bearings can and do cause widespread breakdowns in a factory's massive web of textile equipment. One spokesman said recently the problems caused by counterfeit bearings may be costing India's textile industry as much as $100 million each year in lost production, lost wages, damaged equipment, and unnecessary repair cycles.

In a final ironic twist, the volume of counterfeit bearings being sold into India's replacement market has been going up faster than the rate of industrial production. Several sources told eBearing the reason for this is that the counterfeit bearings fail quickly and so need to be replaced more often.