November 13, 2007 -- Sterlite Technologies Ltd. says it will double its annual optical fiber manufacturing capacity to 12 million km from its current capacity of 6 million km. The expansion at the company's existing facilities at Aurangabad, India is estimated to incur a capex of INR 140 Crores (US$35 million). Commercial production is expected to commence by June 2009.
The facility will be capable of manufacturing the company's existing range of optical fiber products, as well as products meeting evolving international telecom standards that are being introduced to cater to high-bandwidth applications required by global markets.
Sterlite says it is in advanced stages of discussion with manufacturing equipment and raw material suppliers to streamline its efforts towards the expansion project milestones. The company currently supplies over 45% of India's demand and over 4% of the global demand for optical fiber. In H1 2007-08, the company's export sales for its optical fibers accounted for about 55% of total revenues from sale of fiber. The expanded capacity would primarily cater to the growing demand from the Indian market and also enable the company to grow its global market share.
Says Dr Anand Agarwal, CEO and director, "Over the past several business quarters we have achieved tremendous success in key high-demand markets in several geographies and have established a loyal customer base. With the strong outlook by the Indian and global optical fiber industry, we are poised to take our place within the Top 5 manufacturers in the world and we believe that this capacity expansion would give us the strategic advantage to capitalize on the available opportunities. "
India's Ministry of Communication has a target of connecting 20 million broadband subscribers by 2010 and has resolved to make broadband in India more affordable. To make this happen, several incumbents have already announced network expansions. Based on such factors demand from the Indian optical fiber Industry is estimated to experience a year-on-year growth of about 30% from 2007 through 2010.