WS Industries (India) draws up expansion plans

Venkatachari Jagannathan
30 June 2006

Power insulator maker WS Industries (India) Ltd, is looking at becoming the world's fifth-largest manufacturer. It has weathered some turbulent times, but the Rs147-crore one of the country's leading insulator companies, is pursuing ambitious plans to leapfrog from 11th place to the world's fifth-largest porcelain insulator manufacturer.

The flagship company of the Rs225-crore WS group, it has decided to set up a new 8,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) plant; to modernise and expand its existing Chennai unit and, at long last, enter the high-end porcelain insulator segment.

While the company is yet to finalise the location of the proposed Rs100-crore plant, Murali Venkatraman, vice chairman of WS Industries, says, "We are looking at Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. As nearly 90 per cent of the production will be shipped overseas, the plant has to be set up in a port city." Expected to be ready by 2008, the new plant will make hollow porcelain insulators in the range of 72kV to 171kV.

"The expected increase in turnover when the plant goes on stream will be around Rs275 crore," adds Narayan Sethuramon, managing director. Last month, it signed a technical and marketing agreement with the US-based PPC Insulators, the second-largest insulator manufacturer in the world, under which the latter will provide necessary technical inputs for the new plant and bake high capacity insulators, disc insulators and direct current insulators.

On the marketing side, the American company will source substation insulators of up to 171kV for its overseas markets from W S Industries. In return, WS Industries will market a higher voltage range of products (400kV) made by PPC Insulators in India and neighbouring countries. "The idea is to make the product at a location where it is most cost competitive," explains Venkatraman. The company has a production process efficiency of 85 per cent — factory rejects account for around 15 per cent.