Areva T&D seeks to double revenue by 2012

Areva T&D India Ltd, a subsidiary of fench power transmission and distribution equipment major Areva SA, is hoping to double its revenue by 2012, Areva T&D chairman and chief executive officer Philippe Guillemot said on Tuesday.

Inaugurating the company's Rs250-crore facility at Padappai, close to the Tamil Nadu capital of Chennai, Guillemot said, "These are exciting times for us in India, as energy demand in Asia is growing. We anticipate robust demand for our gas insulated substations and power transformers.''

The new plant, comprising three units, will manufacture GIS, circuit breakers and disconnectors. It is part of Areva's Rs 950 crore investment to set up new plants to make power transmission and distribution equipment in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. The company is in the process of opening eight factories in the country this week, at an investment of around Rs 400 crore.

In Tamil Nadu, the company will inaugurate a condenser bushings and instrument transformer plant at Hosur on Wednesday. According to managing director Rathindranath Basu, nearly 40 per cent of the investment has gone into the company's plants in this State.

According to him, the market size for gas insulated substations in India is around Rs 960 crore, of which Areva commands around 40 per cent.

Basu said, ''We have an order book of around Rs4,000 crore now and expect to fulfil it in the next 14-15 months. We also plan to increase our exports to 25 per cent of our output by 2012 from the current 14 per cent.''