What the Jalandhar Sports Goods and Hand Tools Cluster Makes That Meerut Does Not

In 2014 the manager of FC Sondhi & Co, a Jalandhar maker of cricket bats and gloves that sent 90% of its output abroad, told a reporter the one thing no town wants said about it. "I know of clients who land in Delhi and prefer to go and do business in Meerut than travel so long to come here" (Outlook Business, 29 Mar 2014 (opens in a new tab), Reported). The same report described broken roads to the industrial areas and a container terminal standing idle, and it counted more than 100 units that had moved to Himachal Pradesh in five years as wages rose.

Not a pretty picture.

So is Jalandhar finished? No. It still makes things Meerut doesn't, it's the other half of India's sports goods base and it's one of the country's named hand tools towns, but both trades look very different in the trade data than they do from the outside.

Here we cover what Jalandhar makes today, how it stacks up against Meerut, where Pakistan has taken the business and how goods leave Punjab. One caveat up front - Jalandhar has no official export designation for sports goods, and its size figures are old or second-hand, so we only use them where they tell you something.

Jalandhar or Meerut?

Both towns make cricket and hockey goods, and plenty of buyers lump them together. That's a mistake. Here's how the evidence splits -

Sources: Municipal Corporation Jalandhar (opens in a new tab), PIB, Apr 2025 (opens in a new tab), UP ODOP, Meerut (opens in a new tab). Road distances are approximate.

Our reading (Indicative) is simple enough. If your range spans team sports, balls and fitness goods, or you also buy tools, then visit Jalandhar first. If it's cricket-led and the willow is the product then start in Meerut.

The Meerut page covers willow grading, which is the cricket check that matters in both towns.

What Happened to Jalandhar Footballs

Jalandhar once stitched footballs for the world's biggest brands, and the town still likes to tell you so. The trade data tells you where that business went. In 2025 Pakistan supplied 37.6% of the EU's inflatable balls and China 38.5%, while India supplied 2.7%. In the US it was Pakistan 13.4% and India 0.9% (Comtrade, Verified). Sialkot, just across the border, kept the hand-stitched ball trade and the combat-sports leather trade too, and in our forum logs buyers place gloves and pads there and almost never in India.

Should you skip Jalandhar for balls then? We wouldn't. Just ask the question every ball buyer should ask anyway - is it hand-stitched, machine-stitched or thermo-bonded, and in which building?

A Jalandhar house quoting a match ball may stitch it or may buy it in, and either can be a perfectly good supplier. You just need to know which one you're paying for.

The Hand Tools Trade

Most sourcing guides miss this part of Jalandhar completely. A 2025 government factsheet on the hand and power tools sector names Jalandhar and Ludhiana as the Punjab clusters, lists the usual exports as wrenches, pliers, screwdrivers and hand saws, and puts India's hand tools exports at about US$600 million in 2025, 1.8% of the world market (PIB, 22 Apr 2025 (opens in a new tab), Verified). The same report sets a goal of a quarter of the world market by 2035. Ambitious, to put it kindly, and it tells you how small India is today and how badly the government wants that to change.

The import data agrees on both counts. India supplied 6.5% of US imports of spanners and wrenches in 2025 and 6.0% of the EU's, against China's 19.7% and 47.6% (Comtrade, Verified). That's a real second source. If you want a non-Chinese source of forged spanners and pliers then put Jalandhar on your list next to Rajkot and Ludhiana. We think it has earned the spot.

With tools, the checks are all about the metal. Ask for the steel grade (chrome vanadium or carbon steel), the hardness after heat treatment, and the standard the tool is tested to, and test production pieces for hardness and torque at a lab you choose. In the US, check the HTS line with your broker, because steel tools can sit on a Section 232 derivative annex, where the metals rate applies to the full value. Engineering goods explains how.

What Fails, and What to Test

What fails? In the official records it was chemistry, not breakage. In October 2024 the UK withdrew England Hockey's wooden "QuickSticks", made in India, for excess phthalates (UK OPSS (opens in a new tab), Verified). A year earlier a toy cricket set from India was destroyed at the UK border for the same reason. The record doesn't name the maker's town, so we won't pin it on Jalandhar. The lesson holds for both towns anyway. Plastic grips, coatings and painted finishes on sticks and bats are where phthalates hide, and a junior stick sold as a toy has to pass toy rules as well.

So if it has a grip, a coating or a junior size then test the plastics and paint for phthalates and lead before you ship to the UK, EU or US. The toys and sporting goods page sets out where a sports item becomes a toy in law.

Getting Goods Out

Jalandhar has no export container terminal on the lists we read. Its two CONCOR terminals, Suranussi and Phillaur, are domestic only (CONCOR terminal list, read 23 Sep 2026, Verified). The nearest export depot is ICD Dhandarikalan at Ludhiana, roughly 60 km away by road, with rail to Mundra, Pipavav and Nhava Sheva (our cluster-port map, Indicative routing). Which explains the idle terminal in that 2014 report.

Jalandhar is about 1,118 km in a straight line from Mundra (our calculation), so the inland leg is a big chunk of your cost and time. Don't treat it as an afterthought. Quote FCA at a named depot in writing, as FCA explains, and see Mundra port for the gateway. Samples fly from Amritsar or Delhi.

On duty, sports goods and hand tools carry low rates in most of our markets, and the UK and Australia now charge Indian goods 0% with valid origin (UK Trade Tariff and DFAT, read 7 Oct 2026). The US adds the 10% Section 301 duty on Indian goods, or a 232 rate on covered steel tools. The details are on India to the UK, India to Australia and India to the US.

Meeting Makers

The sports goods export council's India Sporting Goods Fair runs 12 to 14 March 2027 at Yashobhoomi in New Delhi, and it's the one place to meet Jalandhar and Meerut makers under one roof. For tools we don't know of a dedicated fair worth recommending. A visit works, and so does checking firms first through how to verify Indian suppliers.

Back to the Buyers Who Went to Meerut

The FC Sondhi manager's clients took the shorter drive in 2014, and the trade data since shows what a town loses when buyers stop coming. What it does not show is a town that stopped making things.

Jalandhar still holds most of Punjab's sports goods trade and a named place in India's hand tools industry, and a buyer who makes the longer trip finds more range there than in its neighbour. You just have to know which trades are still strong - hockey, cricket and forged tools are, while footballs mostly moved across the border.

For India's sports goods trade as a whole, see toys and sporting goods, and for all of India's export towns, India's manufacturing clusters.