Electrical equipment industry grows by 3.5 pc in FY14

The electrical equipment industry grew by just 3.5% in the last fiscal mainly due to lack of orders from utilities which faced liquidity crunch, industry body IEEMA said.

In 2012-13, the electrical industry had witnessed a negative growth of 7.8%.

"It has been a sluggish growth in the country's power sector directly impacting the domestic electrical equipment manufacturing industry," the Indian Electrical and Electronics Manufacturers Association (IEEMA) said in a statement.

"The built-up capacity of the electrical equipment industry currently stands under-utilised across several products. In 2013-14, there has been a minuscule growth of 3.5% in production," the association said.

The T&D (transmission and distribution) equipment sector and manufacturers are broadly working at less than 70% of their production capacity, it said.

"There is no respite visible for the next 2-3 quarters. There is an urgent need to improve fund availability to power sector and provide fuel linkages and faster regulatory clearances for timely completion of power projects," IEEMA Director General Sunil Misra said.

However, exports have helped in the growth of certain sectors like cables, meters, switchgear etc, the statement added.