CALCUTTA, January 30: Crystal Cable Industries Ltd is depending on small orders to keep its plant running as big orders hardly come in following industrial recession.Vice-chairman of the company Narsingh Lal Gupta told The Financial Express that his company will continue with this marketing strategy. He was speaking at the Andul factory in Howrah on the occasion of synchronising Crystal Cable's new XLPE plant with the main production line.
"It is true that all cable producers are crying over the falling demands in the cable market, but still I feel that there is enough to survive. Moreover, things are picking up and we are hoping for a better tomorrow," Gupta said.
According to him, Crystal Cable has a 1,000-and-odd customer-base which includes all major state electricity boards.
"In our list of customers we have CESC, the West Bengal State Electricity Board, the Andhra Pradesh Electricity Board, the Maharashtra State Electricity Board, all steel plants and ports under construction, the IndianSpace Research Organisation, military engineering service providers and Gun & Shell. Moreover, we have a number of small customers also," Gupta said.
Discussing the small customers, he said, "In our industry, orders generally begin with a value of Rs 1 crore onwards but we accept orders worth Rs 2 lakh or even Rs 5 lakh. These small orders always keep us busy. During production, we add up all these small orders and then manufacture the cable because this is cost effective."
The company is one of the three XLPE cable manufacturers in the eastern region, the others being Nicco Corporation and Fort Gloster.
The new section of rubber and XLPE cable plant was recently built at a cost of Rs 30 crore. The Industrial Development Bank of India has given a term loan of Rs 13 crore.
Another Rs 7 crore was mopped up from the market with Crystal Cable's maiden public issue in 1995 and the rest was obtained through internal accruals.
The equity base of the company is Rs 14 crore and the Guptas hold 42 per cent.The rest is with the public.
Bank of Baroda and the State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur are supporting Crystal Cable with Rs 6 crore and Rs 1.25 crore working capital respectively.
In 1996-97, Crystal Cable notched a turnover of Rs 21 crore and in 1997-98 it has targeted a turnover of Rs 25 crore.
The expanded XLPE plant with a capacity of manufacturing 500km cables per annum was built with machinery imported from Scholz of Germany and Dam Electronics of Italy.
Managing director Vinod Kumar Gupta said this is India's largest XLPE plant.
Apart from rubber and XLPE cables, the company also manufactures steel reinforced aluminium conductors.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
