TPi March 2023

“The most exciting yet challenging part of my career was to make Skipper a state-of art manufacturing facility with a strong team of design engineers and draughtsmen who can continuously develop innovative, construction-friendly and effective pipe and valve designs.”

Interview – Siddharth Bansal Director, Skipper Limited

The Skipper polymer division is fast emerging as an important company in the polymer pipes business nationally, contributing to multiple developing sectors as India also expands its infrastructure. We have increased our retail footprints to more than 25,000 touchpoints across the country. Can you tell us a bit about the history of your company since it was first established. Skipper began operating in 1981. Back then the name of the company was Skipper Investments Ltd. Skipper’s journey started by manufacturing Hamilton poles. Not long after, Hamilton poles became extinct. But this did not stop Skipper from growing. We quickly diversified into manufacturing towers and masts and named the company Skipper Steels Ltd. By 2009, Skipper had already made its mark in the Indian market. The company diversified into the PVC market and started manufacturing plastic water pipes. With the commissioning of the Uluberia unit, the first PVC unit, and India’s first double-side Tube GI plant in 2009, Skipper proved to be a leader in the polymer section in the domestic market. From being awarded the ‘Best Industry in Water Resources Sector’ by CBIP in 2016 to having a manufacturing capacity of 51,000 MTPA for polymer products in 2022, Skipper came a long way. Today, Skipper has evolved into a leading international manufacturer of T&D structures in its engineering products segment. The company has ventured into the EPC infrastructure space and has been established as a trusted partner for multinationals for executing critical infrastructure EPC projects. Furthermore, Skipper is a leading and respected players within the piping industry, manufacturing a wide range of premium quality pipes and fittings, which find application in different sectors such as plumbing, sewage, agriculture and borewell. We are an engineering conglomerate in the true sense in this modern era.

What does your company specialise in? Skipper operates in the polymer pipes business. We manufacture premium quality polymer pipes and fittings, which serve the agricultural and commercial plumbing sectors. We cater for both international and local markets with our engineering division’s offerings include products for transmission towers, telecom towers, transmission monopoles, lighting and distribution poles, angles, fasteners and railway structures. Today, we are proud to contribute towards nation building with our various products. As a major conglomerate, a big achievement for Skipper is rapid technology adoption and progress in R&D and manufacturing capabilities by establishing state-of-the-art facilities. We are proud to say that all of facilities are based in Assam, India — including five manufacturing facilities with a total capacity of 300,000 MTPA for the engineering business, 51,000 MTPA polymer production business, one NABL accredited R&D lab and a testing facility.

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March 2023 TUBE PRODUCTS INTERNATIONAL