Diamond Power Infrastructure Limited (DICABS®) has been among the major players in the industry for a long time and it is re-starting operations while retaining the brand identity. As the company has re-financed and re-structured itself to reenter the market, Mr. O.P. Tiwari, Executive Director, & Mr. Pragnesh Modi, President National Sales, sat with Wire & Cable India to share the company’s ongoing processes, market strategy, and future plans. During the conversation, they also discussed the direction where the Indian power sector was headed and DICABS®’ determination to contribute towards it. DICABS®’ Gujarat manufacturing unit is now operational, and its market strategy finds reflection in a Jewish proverb, “I ask not for a lighter burden, but for broader shoulders.”
Wire & Cable India: DICABS® is in the process of restarting its manufacturing operations. Can you please walk us through the process?
Pragnesh Modi: DICABS® used to be an established brand in the Northern and Western regions of India, however, we had to discontinue our operations for a certain period of time due to unavoidable circumstances. Fortunately, our difficult times are past us and we are all set to re-enter the market.
There are a lot of aspects to re-establishing any setup, such as land clearance, equipment finalizing and testing, additional integration, test operations, etc. Re-establishment requires recruiting all the major key resources again, that is manpower, material, money, and machine. DICABS® is also going through the same process. Fortunately, we have completed a major portion of the re-establishment process, for instance, we have strong investors who are helping us with working capital. We completed the land acquisition in Gujarat a long time ago and a part of our factory setup is already revamped and operational, while the other portion is also under the process of setting up. We are currently shipping material for production and have planned phases to reach our full-operational capacity, out of which our first phase is already complete. We shall become fully operational in about 6-8 months.
Additionally, for the last six months, we are in the process of finalizing our key personnel team. All our senior professionals are people with industrial experience spanning 25-30 years and are experts in their fields and functions.
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WCI: What are your plans to re-establish DICABS® as a leading brand in the industry?
PM: DICABS® is a familiar name in the industry owing to our past legacy, and we plan to gain energy from this. We are not only focussing on continuing the qualitative attributes that helped us the first time, but we are also looking to reconnect with our past partners and customers. DICABS® has been fortunate to have strong connections with major industrial players because of our qualitative products and services, which also matched their quantitative requirements. We plan to rehash these so that we will have a reliable market once we enter the competitive landscape.
Geographically, our factory is located in Gujarat, which is the largest industrially growing state and our niche market. Moreover, it is surrounded by other strong markets, such as Maharashtra and Rajasthan. While Maharashtra is the largest industrially driven state, Rajasthan has immense scope and opportunities in solar and wind power, that is renewable sources of energy. Additionally, before pausing our operations Western and Northern regions used to be our major markets, and the Gujarat location gives us easy access to both these directions.
WCI: Please elaborate on your product profile and USP after restarting your operations.
PM: Power Infrastructure is our main forte and we undertake two different functions of transmission and distribution within this sector. Our product profile consists of anything and everything that has an application in the transmission and distribution of power from its source. Our products can be used for all types of sources, thermal, hydro, solar, kinetic, nuclear, etc. We manufacture everything from LT wires & cables to HT wires & cables to conductors. We have a full-fledged capacity to manufacture different types of overhead conductors in addition to underground HV and EHV cables up to 550 kV.
Our product supremacy is evident by the profile of our customers, such as POWERGRID, which is a union government-supported establishment for setting up and updating the nationwide power supply grid, and our focus on the quality of our products.
WCI: Please comment on the current and upcoming trends of the Indian wire and cable industry.
PM: Post-Covid-19 demand for wires and cables has gone up and the government has launched various programmes and schemes to support electrical infrastructure. It is easier for industrial players to get subsidies, subject to targets and conditions. New initiatives like green energy have gained momentum and large investments, including international ones, are being made. The Indian government’s 2049 vision of a unified nationwide smart grid, one that connects power generated from various resources and transmits it across the nation through an interconnected grid, is already in place.
Mr. O.P. Tiwari: The market is growing and cake is getting bigger and bigger. Moreover, various government laws, like The Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, have helped to convert a major portion of the unorganized market into an organized one. The overall power cables market value is INR 100,000 crores, out of which 60 percent is organized. In this INR 60,000 crore market, there is a huge scope of opportunities as it is controlled by a handful of players. Earlier the approximate market share of organized to unorganized markets used to be 40 percent to 60 percent, which has been reversed now. Today, close to 60 percent of the wires and cables market is organized.
WCI: Can you elaborate on the advantages and challenges that the industry shall be witnessing in the upcoming years?
OPT: The opportunities and challenges in the upcoming Indian scenario stem from a single fact, India is looking forward to increasing its power generation capacity and application.
Currently, only urban Tier 1 cities and partially Tier 2 cities are continually connected by power. This is on the government’s radar, and they plan to bring Tier 2 and Tier 3 urban areas, and subsequently rural areas as well under the power grid transmission and distribution system. Our current power generation capacity needs to be doubled in the next nine years, from 410 GW to 800 GW, so that the growing power consumption could be matched. Additionally, the Indian government is also looking to build an immense storage capacity, which shall be fuelled by various sources, namely thermal, hydro, solar, kinetic, and nuclear, and the government aims to increase the renewable sources contribution to support the Indian economy’s climate, environmental, and other CSR responsibilities. Hence, a smart grid is planned.
This plan is a clear message to the market, that they need to double their capacities, which requires renovation of complete cycles of business and operations, such as conductors, towers, LT & HT cables, EHV, etc. Moreover, safety is another issue, as the lives of India’s 141 crores population cannot be mishandled, so the scope of the organized market also needs to be increased. Currently, the organized market is controlled by three to four major players, who cannot possibly cater to the whole nation singlehandedly. Hence, there is a vacuum in the market as well, for a community effort is required.
Conclusively, the challenges lie in the upcoming opportunities, which are interlinked with humongous targets and vision.
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WCI: How do you see DICABS® contributing to the Indian industry?
OPT: DICABS® was a major player in the power industry for the last 15 years, and we have specialists and considerable past experience to our credit. The market is definitely growing and getting competitive and many players are there, but we have our own edge, products, capabilities, and skilled manpower.
Our USP is our quality, which is paramount for any business’s success in the current scenario and in step with the infrastructural development the country is going through. We shall reactivate our connections and network and use our quality to add new customers to it. In Phase 1 we will focus on our niche markets of Northern and Western India, and in Phase 2 of our operations, we will expand into Southern and Eastern regions of India.
PM: We accept that today we are only starting, but we also wish to contribute in our own humble way to the growing Indian economy. Our specialty is that we have all the required facilities in one place. We have power and control cables, substation-to-substation connectivity through overhead transmission, etc. We are confident that this will help us win the customers again and win the market share for what we are planning to be.
