WCA November 2016

India Insight

AAE-1 to come ashore Reliance Jio Infocomm has received environment clearance for building the Indian section of the Asia-Africa-Europe One (AAE-1) submarine cable system. AAE-1, believed to be the largest next-generation subsea cable system at around 25,000km, is under construction by a consortium of 17 global service providers, with the Indian section implemented by Reliance Jio. “As per the recommendations of the EAC [expert appraisal committee], the environment ministry has given CRZ [coastal regulation zone] clearance to the project,” a senior government official confirmed. The cable will terminate in Mumbai at a beach manhole. The expected cost of the project is $6 million. Conditions of the clearance include that activity is confined to the 4-6 hours of low tide, to avoid water ingress in the excavated area. The excavated area must be covered after laying the cable, and even the CRZ area will be cordoned off by floating buoys, warning flasher lights, and a sound alarm in case of any intrusion into the cordoned area. The company has been asked to establish its labour camps and storage areas away from the CRZ area, and told not to disturb mangroves or marine life. The AAE-1 cable system is designed to improve telecom connectivity, providing additional capacity and speed for international traffic. Reliance Jio Infocomm – India Website : www.ril.com Greenfield power site Tata Power Solar has commissioned a 100MW solar project for the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) in Ananthapur district, Andhra Pradesh. In accordance with the Indian government’s “Make In India” initiative, the project uses only domestically manufactured solar cells and modules. The plant, which was completed nearly three months ahead of schedule, is spread across a 500-acre site, where natural streams and hillocks were untouched so as to maintain the natural ecosystem. Tata Power Solar’s executive director and CEO, Ashish Khanna, said: “Today, pace of delivery and quality have become crucial benchmarks in the industry, and we are especially proud to have delivered a project of this scale in record time. “By bringing together our core strengths in domestic manufacturing and EPC services over the last 25 years, this 100MW plant is the largest project commissioned by us to date. We hope to continue to build on our capabilities and deliver over expectations to proficient customers like NTPC.”

NTPC technical director A K Jha said: “Given our ambitious target for green power, we were aware that our requirement of rigorous timelines and cost-efficiency was a challenging one. We thank Tata Power Solar for their experience, and commitment in delivering this large scale project ahead of strict timelines.” Tata Power Solar – India Website : www.tatapowersolar.com Expanding its range Recognised for its manufacture of steel wire ropes, Usha Martin has added oil-tempered wires to its product portfolio. Currently producing 10,000 tonnes per annum of oil tempered wire, the company plans to expand its capacity to 18,000 tonnes per annum. Pengg Usha is a joint venture between Usha Martin and Joh Pengg AG of Austria to produce oil-tempered wire for the automotive industry. The unit at Ranchi has a complete range of manufacturing and testing facilities, including a shaving line, oil tempering line, testing line, tensile testing machine, torsion testing machine, wrap testing machine and metallurgical testing equipment. Usha Martin is one of the largest wire rope manufacturers in the world, with facilities in the UK, India, Thailand, and UAE. Its product range includes wire rope, strand, wire, cable, steel bar and steel wire rod. Usha Martin – India Website : www.ushamartin.com New wire plant Hindalco Industries, part of the Aditya Birla Group, is investing heavily in a new wire rod plant at Dahej in Gujarat. The new facility will take the company’s total wire rod production capacity to 400,000 tonnes from the current 150,000 tonnes. Satish Pai, managing director of Hindalco Industries, reported that the plant will begin production by March 2018, and that the investment is part of a strategy to enhance the contribution of value-added products to 60 per cent, from the current 40 per cent, of overall sales. He added that the recently commissioned wire rod mill in Mahan pushed up copper value-added production by 80 per cent in the quarter to June. The company aims to make one or two investments every year, to increase capacity on the downstream side in both aluminium and copper. However, regarding price outlook Satish Pai said: “We hear China has restarted four million tonnes of aluminium production that was shut due to high production cost. It is a bit worrying, though we do not have firm numbers on this.”

Hindalco Industries – India Website : www.hindalco.com

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Wire & Cable ASIA – November/December 2016