KEI Industries undertook capital expenditure of around Rs.145 crore in Q1 (April to June) of FY25.
In an investor conference, the senior management of KEI Industries said that the company’s capex of Rs.145 crore in Q1FY25 was largely on the upcoming greenfield plant coming up at Sanand in Gujarat.
KEI incurred capex of Rs.76 crore on the Sanand plant and the remaining Rs.69 crore was spread over brownfield expansions at other plants like Chinchpada (Rs.24 crore), Bhiwadi (Rs.21 crore), Pathredi (Rs.14 crore) and others (Rs.10 crore).
The Chinchpada plant located at Silvassa in the UT of Dadra Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu will see expansion in wire and cable manufacturing capacity. This plan is likely to be completed in Q2 (July to September) of FY25.
KEI has planned to increase capacity of LT (low tension) cables at the Pathredi plant in Rajasthan, with a total capex of Rs.125 crore. This expansion is also scheduled to complete in Q2FY25 and once done, will take KEI’s overall LT cable capacity to around Rs.900 crore per year.
The greenfield Sanand plant in Gujarat, on which construction started in FY24, is likely to see total capex spending of Rs.900 crore to Rs.1,000 crore in FY25. This plant that will cater largely to EHV cables, apart from LT and HT cables, is likely to go in commercial production by Q4FY25. However, full capacity will be attained in Q1FY26 for which a further investment of Rs.500 crore – Rs.600 crore will be made in that quarter.
It may be mentioned that in FY24, KEI undertook capex of Rs.397 crore, out of which Rs.197 crore was directed towards the Sanand greenfield plant.
These capacity expansions will collectively result in a growth in export volumes, apart from domestic sales, the KEI management felt. Currently, most the cables exported by KEI Industries are power cables used in the oil & gas industry.
Regarding EHV cables, which are being produced up to 400kV rating in technical collaboration with Switzerland-headquartered Brugg Kabel AG, the KEI management said that most of the sales are taking place in India. However, some exports of EHV cables were being made to Australia and the company was working on further developing the exports market for EHV cables, beginning FY26.
Order book
KEI Industries had an order book of Rs.3,590 crore as of June 30, 2024 that included EPC works (Rs.653 crore), EHV cables (Rs.333 crore), domestic institutional cable business (Rs.2,052 crore) and exports (Rs.552 crore).
Also read: KEI plans Rs.900-crore capex on greenfield Sanand plant in FY25
Featured photograph sourced from a corporate video of KEI Industries Ltd relates to the company’s Silvassa manufacturing facility.
