Slimlites Electricals Pvt Ltd (SEPL) is an ISO 9001: 2008 certified company specialising in various types of copper conductors and winding wires since 1998. Mr Vimal Jalan, Managing Director, in conversation with IPF. Excerpts…

Wires are the core business at Slimlites Electricals. What are the different types of wires manufactured by the company?

We manufacture different types of wires such as enamelled copper wires and strips; paper insulated copper wires and strips; and fibreglass covered copper wires and strips.

Copper wires are considered best, but the quality of copper is often an issue. What are the standards followed here for quality control?

The company strictly follows a policy of buying materials from reputed companies like Hindalco, Vedanta, and other reputed international organisations. We at SEPL have internal testing facilities where all the inputs are tested, like for example, the copper is tested for conductivity, purity, resistance, etc. As a policy only after proper confirmation is received from the QC is the material issued for production.

There is a growing demand for energy efficiency in products and appliances. These are also shedding weight and becoming slimmer. What role winding wires perform here?

That is true. Today all products are designed to be compact and energy efficient saving space and power, and those appliances using electric motors are getting slimmer thus in reducing weight. The role of the winding wire is very important here as it is imperative to achieve the required result, and the copper wire has to be compatible, to do that without compromising on the quality and efficiency of the final product. This can be achieved in copper winding wires only by producing winding wire with higher temperature resistant enamel (to take care of the higher internal temperature generated due to higher processing speed and compact design). At SEPL we have successfully achieved this by reducing our customer rejection to less than 0.1%.

There is growing usage of aluminium wires. How do these compare with copper wires?

Though aluminium wire is increasingly replacing copper wire in many industries but due to inherent advantages of better durability, strength and most importantly, 3 times better conductivity, copper scores over aluminium and thus restricts its usage only in certain products and applications.

What kinds of R&D activities are undertaken at SEPL? Do you also work closely with OEMs to develop customised grades or special requirements?

We at SEPL frequently arrange lectures/sessions from experts of industry to educate our technical staff and operators and as a result enhance our product quality as part of the consistent endeavour to excel and be open to new challenges. There is always a process of consultation with the OEM customers to understand their exact requirements, and they in turn always give preference to us whenever they require certain special grades of wires.

How organised is this industry? What are the problems and how effectively are these addressed?

Historically, the copper winding wire industry has been dominated by the unorganised sector and issues related to quality and standards, but due to progressive government policies related to energy efficiency and measures taken by various associations, the role of unorganised sector is now reduced to a third of the industry, but we still do face various kinds of challenges. There are ongoing efforts to address these issues jointly as well as individually.

How effective are the efforts of the International Copper Association India (ICAI) in safeguarding the interests of the industry?

There are some efforts here but there still remains much work to be done.

How large is the Indian market for copper wires? What is the SEPL share? Any exports?

The size of the enamelled wire industry in India is 2,25,000 metric tonnes per annum out of which SEPL’s share is only 2% which we are committed to scale it up to 4% in next 3 years. During the next 2 years we also have plans to increase our capacity by more than 33%. We export our products to several countries across the globe.

Is there a problem of cheap imports plaguing this segment of the industry?

A lot of material is coming from ASEAN and SAARC countries due to import duty concessions, since there is a treaty signed with these countries. As per data available this is now more than 15% of total copper consumption.

Any plans for expansion?

As mentioned in the previous response, in next two years our plan is to increase our capacity by 33%.

What is your take on Make in India and the various initiatives to boost manufacturing in the country? What is the impact?

The present union government has taken a lot of steps to boost the industry by the Make in India campaign and various policy initiatives related to this, and a gradual improvement in terms of ease of doing business to make the processes much simpler and manufacturer friendly. In next few months we are sure that the economy will get the desired boost and would steadfastly move towards a growth path, which will help us in achieving the Prime Ministers development agenda. We on our part are doing our bit by trying to buy all our inputs domestically and still trying to be as competitive as possible to combat the foreign competition.