India’s largest and most important exhibition for the wire and cable industry opened its doors in Mumbai to more than 5,600 quality trade visitors and buyers and 286 exhibiting companies from 24 countries including national pavilions from Austria, China, France, Germany, Italy, Taiwan and USA. The positive result came as no surprise to many of the exhibitors given the fast pace developments in India and the huge interest by overseas exhibitors in India’s high growth potentials. The number of exhibitors grew by almost 30% in comparison to the 2008 show and gross space up by 50%. The increase is a clear indication of a promising market with sustained upturn in the buying intentions and the need for India’s diverse industries to embrace the latest innovations and state-of the- art technologies. The majority of the visitors came from the wire and cable applications industries particularly from building and construction, transportation, electronics and machinery manufacturing, with a considerable number of visitors having advisory and decision making purchasing authorities.
The show floor was buzzing with business discussions and activities. Some exhibitors reported concluding sales during the show and receiving potential sales for the near future. The majority of exhibitors firmly believe that the buying trends will increase further given India’s high economic momentum for the next two decades and this will provide tremendous opportunities for companies who wish to penetrate the highly diversified Indian markets. It is envisaged that foreign direct investments will continue to rise rapidly with strong interest in property, construction, IT and telecommuni-cations.
Feedback from selected exhibitors
“Given the positive economic climate of India, this is the right time for companies to make their entry into India to tap on its growth potentials. Where the exhibition is concerned, there was definitely a major improvement in the organization of WIRE & CABLE INDIA 2010 in comparison to 2008. We have seen reasonably good quality visitors and were able to meet customers from our target groups. Other than visitors from India, we have also seen several visitors coming from Africa, Middle East, Pakistan and Bangladesh.” Heinz Rockenhaeuser, President, International Wire and Cable Exhibitors Association (IWCEA)/ President & CEO, Maschinenfabrik NIEHOFF GmbH & Co. KG.
“The Indian market is moving forward from basic infrastructure needs to high end technological developments. India’s domestic market consumption in itself presents tremendous opportunities. The manufacturers are beginning to be interested in good quality machinery and equipment and demand for high technical standards. These needs can be met by the German companies who are known for their precision and superior standards. Overall, WIRE & CABLE INDIA 2010 was better than two years ago. There was also a significant improvement in the quality of visitors. We have seen many decision makers and top management personnel with special technical needs.” Dr. Gerhard Bartz, President, Association of German Wire and Cable Machinery Manufacturers (VDKM).
“In comparison to 2008, WIRE & CABLE INDIA 2010 was a huge improvement. The exhibition was professionally organized and we are delighted with the response we have received throughout the exhibition. The quality of visitors was of high caliber and our member companies were able to connect with good quality customers. Overall it was a great success for us and we will be back in 2012.” Peter Large, Executive Committee Member, International Wire & Machinery Association (IWMA).
“In India, where manufacturing is concerned, there is a dire need to upgrade and adopt more advanced technologies in order to be on par with the world’s best practice and in meeting the needs of India’s growing affluent middle-class. Furthermore, the growing sophisticated customer base is becoming more quality conscious. The Austrian companies have given feedback that the visitor quality at WIRE & CABLE INDIA 2010 has improved compared to 2008. There were solid enquiries and sales were concluded with considerable potentials in the future. Overall, exhibitors within the Austrian pavilion were very happy with their participation.” Dr. Kurt Eder, President, Austrian Wire & Cable Machinery Manufacturers Association (AWCMA)/ President, Eder Engineering GmbH.
“The wire and cable sector in India definitely has the potential to develop further and we do see a demand in both top of the line as well as in used machinery. In comparison to the previous show in 2008, WIRE & CABLE INDIA 2010 is better organized. We are here to reinforce our presence in this country and are pleased to with the quality of visitors who visited our stand. Visitors came from a good cross section of the industry with good representation from major cable manufacturers. We were able to meet several promising quality contacts and have received numerous serious enquiries on our products. Overall, we are satisfied with our participation.” Rahul Sachdev, Executive Vice President, WIRE & PLASTIC MACHINERY CORP, USA/President, Wire and Cable Industry Suppliers’ Association (WCISA).
‘’I think both Messe Düsseldorf GmbH and Messe Düsseldorf India have done a good job. There were many people who said that they were impressed with the quality of work at this edition. In general, organization etc. had been pretty good. Rest was terrific and again well done.” Kanchan Dogra, Managing Director, ROSENDAHL Maschinen India Pvt. Limited.
”We appreciated the efforts put in by Messe Düsseldorf GmbH and Messe Düsseldorf India. The overall response from the exhibition has been good and will be even better next time, we are sure.” Ashish Tyagi, Director, ASSOMAC Machines Ltd.
”We have also participated in Wire Cable Exhibition held in Mumbai in 2008 and we would like to put on record that response for recent exhibition was remarkable from previous exhibition. We take this opportunity to congratulate you for successful organization. We also would like to confirm our participation in Wire Cable 2012.” A. P. Gokhale, Director, Autowin Systems P Ltd.
WIRE & CABLE INDIA 2010, organized by Messe Düsseldorf GmbH and Messe Düsseldorf India in co-operation with the Confederation of Indian Industry, is the only exhibition in India that has the solid support from international organizations such as the International Wire and Cable Exhibitors Association (IWCEA), International Wire & Machinery Association (IWMA), Italian Wire Machinery Manufacturers Association (ACIMAF) and the Wire and Cable Industry Suppliers Association, USA (WCISA). The exhibition is also supported by the Steel Wire Manufacturers’ Association of India. The exhibition was augmented by a conference organi zed by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). The conference on “Global Technologies for Emerging India” with special emphasis on emerging technologies for the wire and cable sector was well attended by industry leaders.
The next WIRE & CABLE INDIA will be staged from 29 to 31 October 2012 and will provide the latest technology in machinery, processing and solutions for the wire, cable and associated industries. The exhibition will be held concurrently with Tube India International, Metallurgy India and INDIA ESSEN WELDING & CUTTING, the latter being organized by Messe Essen GmbH. The co-location of the aforementioned shows will provide the industry with a complete and comprehensive spectrum of wire, cables, tubes, pipes, metal, cutting, joining and surfacing technology all under one roof.
Ajex & Turner Wire Dies Co.
Ajex & Turner is a fast growing technology driven unit engaged in the manufacturing of wire drawing dies and die polishing / reconditioning machineries & their consumables since 1962. In 1967 the company joined hands with Turner & Stott ltd, Manchester. A UK based company and in the year 2000 the company has taken over the sick unit of Johnson Metal and Hoosier Ajax in UK which were manufacturing diamond dies and machines.
The company focuses on quality control and on the same Mr. J.S. Gupta informed: “In 2005 Ajex has set up “Conoptica” world’s highest quality die geometry control system followed by laser, EDM, CNC instruments from America and Japan with the object to make die with zero ambiguity. Now, our company is making stranding PCD compacting dies for 35, 70, 95, 150, 245, 300, 500, 630 & 1000 sq mm. Cable and natural diamond dies from 10 micron to 1.5mm.”
Ajex is offering a wide array of products & services to the wire & cable industry through its various principals which includes Metalube, UK; Samp Sistemi, Italy; Keir, USA; Tkt, Italy; Smem, Korea; Sealeze, USA; Eurotek, Italy; Power handling, USA.
Assomac Machine Ltd.
Assomac is a 3 decade old integrated conglomerate of engineering companies manufacturing state of the art wire drawing machines and other equipments suited according the customers requirement. Their promise of quality products has given them the largest customer base in the country. They always intend to bring latest technology for the industry. From last 5 years they have started exports and around 60-65% of their turnover is from exports. Team Wire & Cable India had a brief dialogue with Mr. Nirmal Singh on the subjects like technology transition in India, growth prospects etc. Here are the excerpts.
Innovations & Capabilities
Presently, about 80-90% of the stainless steel wire manufacturing in this country is on our machines and same is the condition with ripped wire too. We are exporting lot of projects of ripped wire manufacturing in the Middle East countries as well as in our country. Our intention is that Indians should get access in the International market, awareness about the latest happenings and the same technology should be available to the Indian manufacturers at the Indian cost. Our focus is to bring the best to our customer’s not in India but for the export customers also.
Technological Transition
A lot of change has taken place in the industry, the type of machinery that is exhibited here, few years back these can be seen in Germany fare only. But, now you can see the same kind of machinery is being manufactured by us and is displayed here. The technological innovations are taking place worldwide people are relying on us as India is the future market.
High Growth Segments in Wire & Cable industry
India will do well in the steel sector in the time to come because a lot of automobile giants are coming in this country and wire is an essential component for any type of industry. India has a good growth prospects.
Cable Tech India
Cable Tech India was started in 1990 with the idea to serve the wire and cable industry with the full range of stranding and cabling machines. Wire is one of the most important component in making cables for which better technology is needed. Being a knowledge driven company led by Mr. A.S. Baghel who is a mechanical engineer, the company endeavors to offer most efficient and reliable solutions to the industry. Company has further acquired 80,000 sq. meters area to meet its capacity expansion plans in future. Cable Tech India has an installation base of over 300 machines across India and now they are in the process of getting in to a technical tie-up with some international technology provider.
Commenting on the subject of Cable Tech presence in India Mr. Baghel said “we are the one of the leaders in stranding and armouring machineries. We cater the specific and unique needs of the customers in case of the stranding machinery and provide high quality standards in the market. We are also serving the Middle East market.”
Talking about the growth scenario he said “wire and cable industry is growing at the rate of 10-20%. We are also expanding in the same manner to fulfill the requirement of the industry in terms of technology, service and customer preference. Technology is improving day by day; moreover we can say that the primary consumers of wire & cable are automobile industry, infrastructure and telecom industry. All these are growing very fast, so that provides a good growth opportunity to our industry too.”
Further on environment & energy aspect he added “our machineries are very much environmental friendly and our main focus is to comply with the environment and legislation requirements, this is one of the basic aspects of our business. And, second part is of course minimization of the energy consumption.”
GCR EURODRAW
The GCR group is composed of 3 companies, one is GCR EURODRAW and other 2 companies are COMAPAC and DEM respectively. Each of the companies specializes in its own field. DEM specializes in machines for rolling wires. COMAPAC specializes in wielding wire equipment and GCR makes everything else that is associated with the wire like PC strand line, PC wire line, wire drawing machine, machines to make ropes, plating lines, electro-galvanizing lines etc. So, GCR group is the only company in the wire industry that can provide turnkey projects, if somebody wants to set up a plant for making any type of wire, we can provide the turnkey solutions from the beginning to the final packaging of the product. We interacted with Mr. Lorenzo Facchinelli, Managing Director, GCR Eurodraw S.p.A. about their Indian presence and views on the Indian Wire & Cable industry.
Indian PresenceIn India we are present since more than 15 years. We have supplied the equipments 15-20 years ago when the duties were very high on imports. But, in last year or so the duties have gone away, so we are re-enforcing our presence. Our clientele include the names like Tata, Ramsarup and other big companies. Every year we continue to increase our sales in India. We have our representative in India based in Delhi, Vidyut Furnaces Mr. Lokendera Singh. Now one of our partners i.e. SII has opened a branch in India and through them we will provide full technical support & assistance on our machines. Presently, our focus is on selling our equipments, increasing our pricing in the market along with increasing the efficiency level. Till date we have probably supplied 70-80 pieces of equipments and have around 10-12 customers.
Major installations in India
We received a very big order form Ramsarup Industries in Kolkata wherein we supplied the complete factory inclusive of PC strand, PC wire, wire for hose enforcement, spring wire etc. It has commissioned almost 80%. The project went in stages, 3 stages have already completed and now the 4th stage is under installation & I am sure that it will further expand.
Wire and Cable industry in India
India is a growing market with a huge potential for growth especially because there are lot of companies that have invested in steel plants in last year. So generally the conversion of steel into wire is the proportion of the wire rod that has been produced. In the last year there was shortage of wire rod in India so that has kind of limited the expansion of the wire industry. But in the last few months some companies have been putting their production to cover this gap. So I expect that in next 2-5 years the wire industry should boost.
Indore Composite
Indore Composite has been in the industry since last 15 years, growing and developing special or niche products to meet the varied customers need. There cable material solutions include all the types of cables, fiber optics, yarns, tapes, jellies etc. Team Wire & Cable India had a brief interaction with Mr. Mukesh Sanghvi, Director, about their facilities, technology adopted, R&D, industry growth scenario, challenges & improvements. Here are the excerpts.
Infrastructure and R&D
We have 3 facilities at Pithampur (Madhya Pradesh), Umbergaon (Gujarat) and Ambernath (Maharashtra) respectively. Our initial technology was outsourced from Canada, and now most of the technology is an in-house development. We supply to almost all the countries in the world. Each of our plants have in house R&D division set up with the routine of about 4-5 manpower and their job is to make continuous improvements, develop new products according to customer expectations. We generally target about 1% of our sales towards R&D.
Growth Opportunities & Challenges
Wire and cable industry in India is definitely growing, fiber optic cable is growing and power cable is expected to boom as well, as these are all infrastructure requirements. In terms of technology India is very well priced, raw material suppliers are all positioned, so I don’t think that their will be any limitations on growth path of the cable industry. The projects which are on paper should come out and how quickly the infrastructure business is addressed to make the things on stream; I think this is the only constraint in the growth of the industry. There is only one area of improvement in the industry i.e. if people can work out a healthy competition as sometimes people do not resolve that. The only thing is that the realization should be reasonable.
Metalube Ltd., UK
Metalube specializes in drawing lubricants in non- ferrous metals mainly for wire and tubes; they also do anti-corrosion protections coatings for ACSR conductors. They spend the major part of their investments in R&D within the company to take the technology forward and make sure that they keep in up with any technology and advancements in the machinery. During the show we had an interaction with Mr. David Lee who shed light on Metalube plans for Indian Market.
We have developed our technologies on the basis of supplying to the leading companies in the wire and industry around the world and I think through the experience that we gained in so many years of working in this field; we can help India as well. We believe, close customer contact is very important and presently we are working through the distributor agents which in turn make close interaction with the wire and cable business in India.
We supply a large segment to the Indian market and of course we strive to add value to more people in the Indian market; we have made rapid strides in last 3-4 years and introduced our product whose large number of users is in India and in future we want to build our business in India which will help to support more comprehensively.
We think that in Indian market the investment is being made in a particular segment of the industry and in particularly to developing the infrastructure with in India, it means that this industry will have a very bright future for many years to come, so it is a very important market for taking our products in. We have also got the plans in hands to meet the challenges in the future.
Miracle Cable Introduces Green Cable
Miracle Cable India Pvt. Ltd was founded by Mr. Yesudhason with a vision to grow with growing India. They manufacture wire and cable and make wire harnessing such as LT cables, power cables, control cables, insulation cables, wires, auto cables etc. Wire harnesses are made as per the customer requirements for automobile industry, consumer product industry, power electronic industry etc. Recently Miracle Cable came up with Green Cable which is basically a non-PVC cable and will replace the traditional PVC cable particularly in the house wiring and general wiring segment. Like in the high risk building, normally the fire risk is very high and this cable will reduce the fire risk.
You talked about the green cable, what are they and what benefits one derives from them?
The material is called EVA which is available in several forms and we are using one particular form. Generally, in case of fire in a building normally people die because the smoke is more and fire is less and this happens because PVC relieve halogen gas and if you inhale it your lungs will get filled with nitrochloric acid and immediately the person will lose the responding power and faints. And the second thing is that PVC generates a lot of black smoke, in case of fire in a building people will be running to save their lives and in case of black smoke the visibility will be less. But, in this wire there will be zero black smoke, slight fumes will come and that will be transparent fumes not smoke.
What are the applications of these cables and what exclusivity it carries?
There are some people making this cable in different form but we are the first company to make it as the Green cable with green concept, to make the customers aware about this product. The application is that you can use it at the airport, schools, colleges, theaters, hostels, high risk building, housing, where ever this cable is used it will give safety benefits. In short, we make cables and sell safety. In future we are working to make a product which can be recycled and is biodegradable.
What are your future growth plans?
This company was started 16 years back on a small scale with very few employees and now we have 200 employees and turnover of about 25 crores and this year we will make 35 crores. Last year we invested 10 crores in the infrastructure which is going to be commercialized in the next financial year and we have a plan of becoming a 100 crore company in the next 3 years. As a part of the growing vision we have acquired a 3rd manufacturing unit at Ambernath, a suburban area of Mumbai with 65000 Sqft Land. At present we are making 2000 km cable per month and when we will complete our project we would be able to make 6000 km per month. The harnessing capacity is about 50,000 harnesses a month and we will be making 1.5 lakhs harnesses in a span of 2 years.
Which are the key markets for your company?
At present we are selling 90% through OEM’s and now we are looking to expand our dealer network. Our exports have grown steadily in the last 2 years and about 5-7% of our turnover comes from exports. The basic advantage with Miracle cable is that we make variety of products like UL cable, welding cable, auto & battery cable, shield cable, armand cables, PVC cable, fireless EVA etc. The array is very wide, so many OEM’s are very comfortable with us because they get everything under one roof.
Rimjhim Ispat Ltd.
Rimjhim Ispat has composite facilities which include steel melting shop, wire rod rolling mill, round bar/structure rolling mill, bright bar plants, wire drawing and HR/CR colls plates mill. At present the company produces 16000 tons every month of stainless steel grades. With the new plant coming in by Februaryend in 2011 for making stainless steel hot coir and plates the capacity would be around 25000 tons per month. For the wire rod mill they have gone for a second hand machine from USA. The company sells about 80% of their production in domestic market and exports the rest 20% in the international market.
Rosendahl Maschinen GmbH
Rosendahl Maschinen GmbH headquartered in Austria is a global market and technology leader for manufacturing solutions providing turnkey solutions for the wire and cable market. The company offers a broad range of solutions for cable manufacturers in the field of power cables, automotive wires, LAN cables, coaxial cables, fiber optic cables and extrusion crossheads. In 2001 “Rosendahl Maschinen India Pvt Ltd” was established as an independent company in India with an idea of being closer to the customer, which indeed is the philosophy of the group. Continuing this philosophy the company opened there offices in different parts of the world like Atlanta, Moscow, China, Brazil, India and in future they plan to open office in middle east region too. During the show we interacted with Mr. Kanchan Dogra, Managing Director, Rosendahl Maschinen India Pvt Ltd, where he highlighted about the Indian market, presence, orders and future trends in the market. Excerpts
Commenting on the Indian market he said “it is very price sensitive and they opt for the cheapest solutions and thus we have to educate the customer. But since couple of years this trend is changing. See it’s not the machine that we supply. It’s a partnership where we supply best technology based on our know-how and the customers understand the value and they pay for it”.
On the Rosendahl’s Indian presence he said “90% of the machines in India in fiber optics segment are from Rosendahl and our associate company Nextrom. But now there is a bit competition from local players. Almost 70% of our business comes from repeated customer. Indian office is for sales and service and we are getting a business of average of 10 million Euros per year from here.”
Further giving the view of some of the orders he mentioned “We are getting good orders for building wires & automotive segment. We supplied complete solutions to Finolex as they are putting up a plant in Uttaranchal, all 6 lines are from us and 2 more lines will be installed. Then we are supplying lines to Polycab and extrusion lines to RR Kabel. We are also serving or in talks with other big names like Anchor, Havells, and KEI etc. We have also supplied machines to the various JV companies in India including Rosenberger Shilpi Cable, LS Cables etc”.
Talking about trends and future of the Indian market he said “every company on the globe is looking to have a small pie of this cake and thus lot of multinational companies are coming to Indian market and doing joint ventures. In fact majority of the key Indian cable manufacturers have some joint ventures today. With these companies coming to India the focus on technology is improving and also lots of experts are also coming in the industry.”
Sikora India Pvt Ltd.
During the exhibition we talked had an interaction with Mr. PS Saggu, Director, Sikora India Pvt Ltd who explained us about the Sikora as a company, its product portfolio & benefits, the future of the wire & cable industry in India.
SIKORA with its headquarters in Bremen, Germany has for over three decades developed a reputation as a global leader in the supply and support of excellent measuring, controlling and testing equipment for the wire, cable, plastics and rubber industry. We are the leaders in power cable segment and the most preferred suppliers to the OEM’s globally. In the field of power cables we supply wall thickness, eccentricity measuring and controlling systems and captivated 92% of the market share globally. Our USP is the technology which helps in the material saving, quality control and the overall process control. Wherein the savings are generally varies between 3-7%. In India we supply to all the power cable companies and enjoy 92% of the market share. In the segment of automotive cables, telecommunication cables etc we enjoy 50-60% of the market share.
As per the market demand, during the show we came out with a product called Length 6000 which can measure the length of the cable accurately. We have also introduced some technological upgrades in our existing product range. Further we also have the new gauge heads for controlling the fiber applications where fibers are drawn to make optical fiber lines. Moreover we have tied up with Nextrom as an OEM supplier for their production lines. During the exhibition we have finalized the 5-6 orders for our product X-ray 100.”
The government’s initiative like “electricity for all” shows a good growth opportunity and I believe that industry will grow at a rate of 10-12% every year in the next decade. During the exhibition we were surprised to see that for producing house wire products people went for the best production lines like Rosendahl along with latest instrumentations of Sikora in spite of the fact it is a product which didn’t attracted high level of sophistication in technology till today. This shows that the investments are being made in the house wiring segment and end consumer is very selective about the quality.”
Sneham International
Sneham International is headed by Mr. Anish Metrani CEO, offering the services of proven capability in manufacturing of adhesive and non-adhesive insulating tapes. The company has a stable and progressive growth with dedicated hard work on achieving customer satisfaction by ensuring quality products. In a brief Interaction he discussed his perception about the cable industry in India, growth scenario, improvement on the technological front etc.
“We are supplying tapes to the cable industry form last 25 years and some of our products we are enforced to do them 
in India. But we are seeing a lot of growth now and I think it’s going to increase with the nuclear bill coming in and a lot of things happening in India especially at the transmission and the distribution front. We all know that India is under developed in terms of power and a huge area is still uncovered. In future there will be huge demand as lots of Europeans are coming to India, and they are tying up with companies for the raw material.
We are also in talks with some companies for the tie up to manufacture their products in India. All the cable manufacturers require these tapes and we capture 90% of the market share. We are into exports and almost more than 40% of our production is exported. The growth prospects are around 40-50% as compared to last year. Everybody has ramped up their capacities which provide the huge boost to the demand.”
Further to improve on technological front he said “high voltage cables are in demand. And, lot of things are happening in India and we on our part are also have been trying to gear up with the present conditions for which we have put up a Korean plant recently for our water blocking tapes. All the technological advances will now take place in India very soon.
Supermac Industries (India) Ltd.
Supermac Industries (India) Ltd., a 37 years old company is a technological leader in manufacturing of extrusion lines. The company centered out cable extrusion in mid 90’s and supplied around 400 lines till yet of different nature. 80% of their sales are from India and 20% goes to international market mainly to Middle East, South East Asia and African countries. Mr. Jasvinder Singh, Executive Director, Supermac Industries (India) Ltd. spoke about the latest trends, developments and market scenario. We present here the excerpt of the interaction.
Product Development
Initially house wiring sector, optical fiber sector was the highlight but in this decade extra high voltage cable and the instrumentation cable is on the top whereas Signal cables and communication cables are the current trends. For these products, very hi-tech machines are essential which runs on very high speed. Therefore high speed, precision and cost cutting through energy saving is very much required.
We have supplied 33 and 66 KV lines to few manufacturers in India and now focus is on extra high voltage cables for which we have developed the line up to 132 KV, the next step would be 200 and 400 KV lines. Another major development of Supermac is that we have successfully launched one of the fastest line in India for house wiring section which runs up to 1000 mpm.
Technological development for better efficiency
In the extrusion industry heating takes a long time. For this we have energy saving extruders and a precise control on energy required to heat. Thus we have very accurate control over the actual heating and cooling power which saves energy by 25 to 30% and ultimately saves cost. Better efficiency in the form of high output, low breakdowns, fast change over time. These were the obstacles in the past. If someone has to change the size, he has to wait for at least 30 minutes, now that can be done in a minute online by better automation.
Challenge for Indian Cable Industry
Presently cost is the major concern for Indian cable manufacturers. The basic content they use is not of very good quality that is one area where we need to upgrade ourselves. Secondly, ISI standards which Indian industry follows are way behind the European standards. Further we need to have manufacturers locally who can provide high quality polymers, which will reduce our dependency on imports.
Strengths of Supermac
We are the only company in India which has in-house automation, panel making and testing facility. The in-house team of qualified engineers specializes in installation and commissioning. With its 24×7 hour service motto, we ensure prompt response to every complaint. Moreover, we have extensive stock of spares which ensures minimal turnaround time. Besides, 70-80% of our extrusion equipments are from Europe which ensures good life of the machine with same accuracy level for many years.
He concluded by saying that “Supermac specializes in providing customized solutions, taking care of all sorts of customer requirements. We are committed to contribute to the growing need for import substitution and exports by using the state-of-the-art technology and suiting all budgets”.
Tekstilna Tovarna Okroglica
Team Wire & Cable India met Mr. Marko Ledinek of Tekstilna Tovarna Okroglica who briefed us about his company and its product offerings along with the different subjects like India as a market, key specialization & new product developments.
We manufacture the water blocking tapes which are used mainly in all kinds of cables i.e. medium voltage, high voltage, special cables, nuclear cables, power cables, submarine cables etc. In India we started our operations last year and we are quite successful because we have got 3 customers till now and have interacted with lot of other concerned people. In the past, India was not the potential market for us as petro gallium tapes were in use which was not good for the environment. Now a lot of export oriented customers in India have to use our tapes otherwise they cannot export to other countries in the world. We are expanding in India as it has big potential and we would like to implement our knowledge and experience here to support our customers. Our production facilities are based in Europe and another in China in order to compete.
Key specialization
Presently we are supplying non conductive and semi conductive water blocking tapes in India this is the main product for us as our tapes have the ability to stop the penetration of water in the cable which means cable remains dry for long. This is the key specialization of our product.
New product development
We have developed new tapes called submarine tape. These are especially designed to protect the cables in the salt water. Now we are developing tapes for nuclear cables, as the nuclear energy is foreseen as a future to develop green energy. These special nuclear tapes are under approval from French institute.
Vikas Spool Pvt. Ltd.
During the Wire & Cable exhibition we interacted with Mr. Vikas Yadav Head Marketing, Vikas Spool Pvt. Ltd. discussing about their present & future plans. He said “we are serving more than 250 clients in the wire & cable and the fashion industry of India including the major corporates like KEI, Wills, Tata etc. Our revenue is close to 25 crores with an export share of 10-15% of our production. Now we are looking forward towards new markets mainly Turkey and Germany for the next year because the kind of quality we are producing right now is very much close to their standards and very price competitive. Since we can produce the same quality at a lower cost because of the Indian conditions, why not supply at this cost. Certainly, it is a good opportunity and the basic idea is to maintain the good quality and the basic consistency in the product that is what is mainly required.”
Walson Woodburn Die Pvt Ltd
Woodburn is the world’s premier diamond die manufacturing group in America having the 5 decade of tradition & experience. With 5 manufacturing plants worldwide they export to various parts of the world with a strong sales network. During the discussion Mr. Purvesh J., Director, Walson Woodburn Die Pvt Ltd enlightened us about their plans for India, growth potential & challenges etc.
Growth potential in India & Challenges
Since last 5 years wire and cable industry is growing at a significant pace in India and there is lot of room for development. Technology wise lots of international companies are coming in, joint ventures are happening, so technically there are some advancements but still, a long way to go. The main challenge is to keep pace with the growth and future requirements.
Indian Facility
We have 2 manufacturing units in India. A plant in Surat (SEZ) has just started, which is dedicated to exports and the other plant is also in Surat and that is for the local market. The initial plant was started 35 years back and then in 1997 we made a joint venture with an American company in order to grow, to understand the new technology and try to implement that. The SEZ plant is in existence since last 2 years; in the last 4 months it got fully operational.
Market Scenario
We have tuned ourselves with the trends of quality and service, as we are exporting to lot of foreign companies. In India right now there is not much demand, the customers are focused on quality but still it will definitely grow and somebody has to take up that challenge. We are constantly going out, meeting customers in India and outside India, we also learn from our customers as what are the new requirements and accordingly we are trying to work.
Investment in R&D
We have one of the finest QC labs worldwide when you compare to any other dye company. We have installed best equipments to check the quality of our product in order to certify as what our customers are getting.
Product Portfolio
We are a complete dye makers, our sizes range start from very fine size from 15 microns all the way up to 38 mm in natural diamond and PCD’s. We cover the varied customers of stainless steel, phi lament, cable etc.
Zumbach Electronics
Zumbach Electronics is known name for providing in-line and off-line measuring, monitoring and process control solutions for wire & cable industry. It also covers other sections but wire and cable is the biggest market for them. The company was established 50 years ago in Switzerland as one of the first for these particular kinds of systems. And over the years they have expanded globally especially in Asian countries as they are the key markets for them. All their efforts are dedicated to achieve customer satisfaction by delivering the maximum return on investment to every user oftheir products.
Mr. Silvio PILLER commented about Zumbach in India “we have our own office in Pune in India operational from last 6 years with a staff of 6 people working there as technical, sales, office management etc. We are mainly serving the Indian wire and cable industry as it is the biggest market for us along with other markets like steel, automobile etc. We can serve all types of companies whether big, small or medium. Being a Swiss company and producing everything in Switzerland, our prices are bit higher but then the performance, quality and ROI which the customer get with the equipment is being appreciated at large by the Indian companies. Moreover we have a better season in India than the last year and it seems that market is alive again; we just collected some very good orders. We believe that Indian market is quite stronger, and need just a little more time to be much stronger for us. Since people have started exporting a lot so it is important for them, to have importing capabilities in their equipments. With these measuring technologies is exactly what we are offering so it’s a profitable product.”