WCA May 2018

India Insight

Cable spread Reliance Communications, with its Chinese partner Alibaba Group Holding and five other funders, is investing $600 million in a 68,000km undersea cable stretching to Italy and Hong Kong. Reliance Communications expects the initiative, to be completed by December 2020, to triple the revenue of its wholly owned subsidiary Global Cloud Exchange within five years, chief executive Bill Barney confirmed. “The cloud and fibre initiative is our response to the key requirements in the global marketplace, driven by the explosive growth in cloud and infrastructure programmes by enterprise around the world,” said Mr Barney. “This initiative levels the playing field for India’s companies to compete globally.” The company has already entered into agreements with six partners, including Alibaba. Mr Barney said the company hopes to attract up to 30 partners, raising over $700 million from pre-sales of the cables. Such sales would more than cover the investment. The company also sees potential in the Maldives to connect Australia and Djibouti. Strengthening the cable system is part of the group’s ‘new Rcom’ focus, announced by group chairman Mukesh Ambani last December. Reliance Communications – India Website : www.rcom.co.in Data cable plan Salzer Electronics, a producer of cables and wires, is to invest in a project to manufacture data cables. Joint managing director Rajesh Duraisamy announced the move, adding that demand for data cables is high among industries and the IT sector, not only in India but also in west Asian countries. The company expects 70 per cent of sales to be for the domestic market. Salzer Electronics – India Website : www.salzergroup.net HFCL to build optical fibre plant In Telangana Himachal Futuristic Communications Limited (HFCL) will set up a Rs 260-crore plant to manufacture optical fibre at Fab City in the Ranga Reddy district of Telangana. The company manufactures optical fibre cables at its Goa plant and at Chennai through its subsidiary HTL Limited. In order to reduce the input cost and overcome the ‘worldwide shortage’ of fibre supply, the Telangana facility, for which the foundation stone was laid, is being set up as a backward

integration of optical fibre cable manufacturing, the company said in a statement. The facility is expected to produce 6.4 million fibre kilometres per annum. The project cost is estimated to be Rs 260 crore and it will commence production from April next year. This manufacturing facility will produce optical fibres mainly used for telecommunication (4G/5G) and various networks for broadband and FTTx in India and abroad, it added. Himachal Futuristic Communications Limited – India Website : www.hfcl.com Offshore wind feasibility reports The GWEC-led FOWIND (Facilitating Offshore Wind In India) consortium has published the feasibility reports for offshore wind development in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. The Feasibility Study for Offshore Wind Farm Development in Gujarat And Tamil Nadu reports provide a concept design for demonstration projects of 150 to 504MW in Zone A, the most promising offshore wind development area in the two regions. The reports comprise information about the optimum location for the projects within Zone A and define baseline metocean and geotechnical parameters, which leads to optimising the design and outline project costing using DNV GL’s LCOE (Levelised Cost of Energy) tool Turbine.Architect. In addition, the reports analyse 4, 6 and 10MW turbines, coming to a range of conclusions as to project cost and cost of energy in a range of configurations. This is said to provide companies and government institutions with a starting point for future detailed offshore Front End Engineering Design (FEED) studies, and assists with the identification of key project risks in the two areas. In November 2017, FOWIND commissioned the country’s first offshore LiDAR, offshore Gujarat, to measure the offshore wind resource. Facilitating Offshore Wind In India - India Website : www.fowind.in Dynamic Cables: New unit goes commercial Dynamic Cables announced that its new unit at Reengus, Rajasthan, commenced commercial production from 5 th March. The company manufactures a range of cables and conductors such as 66kV high-voltage cables, railway signalling cables and optical fibre ground-wire in the new unit. The plant will be manufacturing HT and HV cables through a continuous catenary vulcanising extrusion line. Investors will closely monitor the development. Dynamic Cables – India Website : www.dynamiccables.in

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