Shilpi Cable to foray into railways segment

Buoyed by government's target of electrifying the entire 65,000 km railway route, Shilpi Cable Technologies plans to enter the railways segment by manufacturing catenary wires to meet the demand, a senior company official said.
The company has also planned a capex of Rs 50 crore till 2016-17 that will be largely used for manufacturing these wires.
"The government has decided to electrify the entire 65,000 km railway route. Being a leading player in the cables business, we see this as a huge opportunity and so we decided to enter the railways segment by manufacturing catenary wires required for the electrification," its Whole Time Director Ghanshyam Pandey told PTI here.

Currently, only about 24,000 km is electrified out of the total 65,000 km route.
He said the company has already partnered with a British firm for importing the machines and the production will commence from June next year.
"We will carry out the trials in February next year and by June we hope the production will commence in full swing. We will enhance the capacity in 2017," Pandey said.

He further said the company is eyeing Rs 1,800 crore revenue by 2016-17.
"Apart from the railways business, we are also betting big on the telecom business, especially after the roll-out of 4G. We plan to enter the antenna business, which gives higher margins. We are in the final stages of formulating plans for our entry in the segment...May be through a joint venture. We expect the procedures in this regard to be complete in the next 2-3 months."

"With the two new businesses becoming operational, we expect our revenues to grow to nearly Rs 1,800 crore in 2016-17 from Rs 1,400 crore in 2014-15," Pandey added.
The New Delhi headquartered firm, which initially started as a RF cables manufacturer, gradually became a specialist across the varieties of cables widely used in telecom, automotive and energy segments.
The company manufactures these cables at its five facilities with two in Rajasthan and one each in Haryana, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.