With the demand for power on the rise in India and the government's thrust on infrastructure development, Cords Cable has embarked on an ambitious programme to further expand its operations, reports Huned Contractor

If there is one thing in particular that the New Delhi-based Cords Cable Industries has done ever since its establishment, it is to keep a sharp eye on the changing demands of the country in terms of infrastructure development and keep fine-tuning its own production outputs to meet the requirements. As such, with the global focus now on green technologies for power generation, Cords Cable too has engaged itself in the introduction of cables that will serve this sector in an upgraded mode.

"As a result of climate change, there has been an increasingly greater interest from governments of various nations towards the adoption of green technologies for power generation such as solar, wind, geothermal, nuclear, etc. The West is far ahead of the rest of the world in terms of the adoption of these technologies, but we expect to see a slow catch-up and change towards greater adoption of green technologies around the world especially in Asia and the Middle East which are our focus markets," says Mr Naveen Sawhney, Managing Director, Cords Cable. An approved vendor for Nuclear Power Corporation of India, Cords Cable has recently added solar PV cables to its portfolio and some of the other products that it has developed and marketed successfully in the last few years include foundation Fieldbus cables, fire survival cables, low temperature cables, EPR insulated cables, specialised cables for oil and gas, etc.

"The primary focus of Cords Cable is the customised design and manufacture of high-quality, value-added special cables in the low voltage category. This gives the company a unique position in the cable industry," says Mr Varun Sawhney, Vice President (Marketing & HR). Cords Cable was set up in 1987 by a group of industry professionals, including Naveen Sawhney and D K Prashar, with the objective of catering to a growing requirement for high-quality customised cables that included LV power, control cables, instrumentation cables, thermocouple cables, etc. Its two manufacturing facilities are situated in the Bhiwadi industrial area in Rajasthan with 22,000 sq.m and 32,000 sq.m of working area.

Over the years, with its emphasis on consistent research and development, the company has been designing new products and one of the areas where it sees huge potential is the development of specialised rubber cables for industries such as ship-building, material handling, mining, wind power, etc.

Therefore, taking into account the increasing need for customised cables, the company has recently commenced commercial production from its state-of-the-art manufacturing facility at Kahrani.

"We have carefully selected our machine suppliers with a focus on reducing our dependence on manpower and improving efficiency and quality. Much of the machinery has been imported from Europe. We have also invested heavily on our in-house copper wire-drawing and tinning facility which should be among the best," informs Naveen Sawhney.

This plant is geared towards the production of high-quality control, instrumentation, and special cables. "In the first full year of operation (FY2011-12) it should give us an additional topline of up to USD 55-60 million and would further strengthen our position as a leader in India for these products. Also, the plant is designed keeping in view the next few years - it gives us scope for addition of new products and further increase in capacity by up to 25-30 per cent," he adds.

In fact, the year 2010 has seen a good number of developments in the company. For instance, it received approval from Power Grid Corporation of India for control and LV power cables that has increased its scope in the energy distribution sector in India.

Cords Cable also received approvals and orders from Engineers India Limited (EIL) for its foundation Fieldbus cables and power cables. "India was dependent on imports for these special cables used for high-speed digital data transmission which can now be locally manufactured. We had been working on the development of this product since over one and a half years," Naveen Sawhney states.

The year 2010 also saw Cords Cable successfully develop EPR insulated control and instrumentation cables as also its XtremeTemp range of cables for regions with very low freezing temperatures. These are new markets for the company. "We also launched our Cordsol brand of solar PV cables in Mumbai on December 14 during the Inter Solar India Exhibition," Varun Sawhney adds.

Given India's excellent economic progress over the years, the company is now investing in further diversification of its cable offerings with a focus on the development of more value-added cables. "We have invested considerable amounts in modernisation and increasing the automation level of our manufacturing process besides introducing strict cost-cutting and disciplinary measures throughout the organisation. We are also re-negotiating terms with our bankers, vendors, and customers to reduce the interest burden on the company," Naveen Sawhney informs.

One of the other key focus areas in recent years is to beef up its export division to develop markets in Africa, Middle East, Europe, and CIS to improve profitability and increase visibility. Says Naveen Sawhney: "We decided to get into international business about four years back. At that time almost our entire topline came from domestic sales. We participated in MEEE 2007 exhibition at Dubai where we received an excellent response. Our products were very well received and over time the quality and level of service appreciated. Since then we have not looked back. Today, our export division accounts for more than 20 per cent of our topline and should see further growth in the coming years."

Constantly in search of new horizons, Cords Cable has, since the past one year, been working on developing its own cable costing module, building on a Microsoft Dynamics Navision platform. User testing is underway and it may go live very soon.

"This will greatly reduce the time required to respond to customer enquiries and help our technical team to focus on more complex product design and development," Varun Sawhney states. Some of the company's customers are NTPC Ltd, BHEL, Engineers India Ltd, Indian Oil Corporation, L&T, Tata Steel, Tata Power, Cairn Energy, Kvaerner Powergas, Petroleum Development Oman, Alstom Power India, Reliance Energy Ltd, Areva, National Aluminium Company Ltd, Honeywell Automation India, Siemens, Asea Brown Boveri, etc.

With huge opportunities in the pipeline, Cords Cable has set its mission to strive for growth in new and existing markets and provide cost-effective and quality solutions for the data transmission and electrical connectivity requirements of the industry by offering high-quality, customised cables at a competitive price, with best service and unfailing commitment. "Our vision is to be recognised as a leading global player," Naveen Sawhney states.

(Contact: Cords Cable Industries Ltd, Tel: 011-40551200, Email: ccil@cordscable.com)