Finolex Cables expects to commission its new plant for specialized electrical cables by March next year.
In an investor conference, the senior management said that the new plant will produce electrical cables where high thermal stability is required. Application areas could include solar power and automobiles, among others.
The plant will be located at Urse in Maharashtra. Finolex Cables has its manufacturing facilities spread over Maharashtra (Pimpri and Urse, both near Pune), Goa and Uttarakahnd (Roorkee).
It is further learnt that order for equipment has been placed on a Korean supplier. The machinery will be despatched from Korea in December 2023 and will arrive in India by January 2024. With the plant building already in place, the new electrical cable plant should be running by March 2024. The machinery order, it is understood, was initially placed on a Chinese supplier but was subsequently cancelled.
Finolex Cables has planned capital expenditure of around Rs.400 crore over the next 12 to 18 months. Apart from the aforementioned electrical cables plant, the company is also undertaking capacity expansion at its Roorkee plant in Uttarakhand. This should be completed by next year.
EHV Cables
Finolex Cables produces EHV cables up to 500kV through Finolex J-Power Systems Ltd – a joint venture between Finolex (equity: 51 per cent) and J-Power Systems of Japan (equity: 49 per cent), incorporated in 2008. J-Power Systems is owned by Sumitomo Group.
The current order book of FJPS is slightly under Rs.200 crore and the company has a current bidding pipeline of around Rs.1,500 crore.
The senior management explained that in the case of FJPS, the revenue generation tends to be slower as the company not only supplies the EHV cable but also undertakes the complete EPC works associated like cable laying, jointing and termination. Hence, even after the EHV cable is supplied, there could be delay in completing the contract for reasons like inability to secure right of way.
Application areas for EHV cables would include power transmission, metro rail, industrial plants and large infrastructure projects like seaports and airports.
Also read: Finolex Cables Introduces LAN Passive Components
Featured photograph (source: Finolex) is for representation only.
