Shilchar Technologies recently completed a capacity expansion programme at its transformer manufacturing facility in Gujarat.
The plant, located at Gavasad in Vadodara district, was expanded by 3,500 MVA in August 2024. This has enhanced the overall plant capacity to 7,500 MVA per year.
The new capacity base is available from H2FY25 onwards (from October 1, 2024) and the company was fully prepared to maximize this potential, according to the senior company management addressing an earnings call.
The company maintains a healthy demand outlook from both the domestic and exports market. Shilchar’s current order book position is around Rs.450 crore that will be executable over the next nine months or so.
On industry-related matters, the Shilchar management said that there were some issues relating to import of CRGO (cold-rolled grain oriented) steel, with respect to BIS approval. However, the material is available but prices have moved up in recent times, the management felt.
Shilchar Technologies specializes in inverter duty transformers (IDT) that are used in association with renewable energy generation projects – like solar and wind. Of the company’s total capacity of 7,500 MVA, around 60 per cent would be towards IDTs.
Such inverter duty transformers are not used for transmission of renewable energy generation. Instead, they “invert” the DC (direct current) generation into AC (alternating current). A renewable energy generation project of say 100 MW capacity would therefore need a matching IDT of 100 MVA.
The company is also engaged in exports and mainly supplies to USA, Canada and Middle East countries. Shilchar received a breakthrough order from Europe, it is learnt, but details are not available.
Going ahead, the company would focus on the renewable energy sector where new installations would be in the order of 15-20 GW per year. Shilchar Technologies does not supply to transmission utilities. While 60 per cent of its revenue comes from renewable energy transformers, the balance comes largely from exports.
Featured photograph (source: Shilchar Technologies) shows the transformer testing area at the company’s transformer facility in Gujarat.
