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Wire & Cable ASIA – November/December 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:
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:
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:
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: