Cost is a critical challenge for cable tray companies

DM Bhatia, Managing Director, Indiana Gratings Pvt. Ltd. (Indiana Cable Trays Corporation/Indiana International) speaks about the challenges faced by cable tray businesses and how establishing business overseas can help companies beat the domestic slump.

What kind of new innovations are you adding to your products?
Indiana has always been at the forefront in introduction of products which would be beneficial to its clients. Instead of using the conventional method of shearing the sheet, punching and thereafter bending, we have opted for automation. Mother-coil is slitted to required width and the same is fed to CNC machine. With the commissioning of state-of-the-art, fully automatic machine for production of embossed type cable trays which offers better weight to strength ratio, cost of labour has reduced drastically and production rate has increased. The cable trays produced out of this machine are comparable to international standards.

How is your organization coping with the slowdown that is being faced by the transmission sector?
Indiana Gratings is a company having an experience of more than 40 years. We ventured into cable tray business way back in the 1980s. Today we are one of the leading cable tray manufacturers in India. We not only cater to the Indian market but also cater to the international market including developed European countries and the US. The current slowdown has not affected us. Till third quarter, we have already achieved growth of approximately 22 percent and we hope to achieve growth of approximately 25 percent by the end of
FY 2019-20.

What kind of challenges exists in the cable tray market?
Cost is one of the critical challenges being faced by the cable tray manufacturers. Steel prices are going up whereas electrical contractors do not have the budget; under the circumstances, margins are under pressure. If the electrical contractors have Price Variation Clause (PVC), then they would not have budget constraints, which would help cable tray manufacturers to overcome the cost repercussion.

DM Bhatia, Managing Director, Indiana Gratings Pvt. Ltd. (Indiana Cable Trays Corporation/Indiana International)
Cost is one of the critical challenges being faced by the cable tray manufacturers.