Manish Bhatt, CEO, Shilpi Cables Technologies

Manish Bhatt, CEO, Shilpi Cables Technologies

Overview

  • Conclusion:

    Last year has been exciting for the country as new government has made many industry-friendly announcements and we share optimism on the Make in India, Smart Cities and Digital India program that will drive growth for the manufacturing sector in next fiscal, says Manish Bhatt, CEO, Shilpi Cables Technologies with Auto Tech Update.

Please share with us your expansion plans in the next financial year?
Shilpi Cable Technologies Limited (SCTL) has a wide variety of product offerings and the capacities presently are utilized at fair levels. As a conscious strategy we add capacities when the utilization levels are near 80-85 percent. The capacity additions are normally in small chunks as and when required for different products. The capex is usually funded through internal accruals/ equipment finance routes expect when the capes is large and involves building a new factory. We presently don’t intend to put up any new factory in SCTL in next two year time horizon. We are open though to opportunities in M&A and Joint ventures.

Kindly share with us your overseas business segment?
Shilpi Worldwide DMCC operates as an Original Equipment Supplier (OES), selling Telecommunication used largely in the Telecom Infrastructure sector in addition to being a reliable source of Copper products to other traders.

What are your views on Digital India and smart cities and their role as part of boosting the automotive sector?
Our thoughts on Digital India is that it has to necessarily entail use of more internet communication and location identification devices which run turn requires huge capacities of data handling on the part of telecom and internet service providers. SCTL will always be at forefront of this fountainhead of opportunity to provide the required hardware for this. Digital India will also entail better wiring of homes to enable state of art communication devices and internet enables gadgets and SCTL sees big opportunity to differential itself from others with its high tech product offering.

Smart Cities will entail better public transport and connected cars. The automobile sector will have a paradigm shift in its focus and product development as even with fewer number of cars sold , the overall market in terms of value will grow significantly with higher end products replacing old and dated transport vehicles. At Shilpi, we see this as a big opportunity both for our automobile segment which will required higher valued better products as also speciality cables and components used in modern public transport.

Please share details about their presence in the automobile sectors and about their business operations?
Currently, we are supplying to tier one operator and we are in process of getting approval from four wheeler segment.

What are your views on the impact of GST on the automotive sector?
As the manufacturers of automobiles and automobile components are spread across the country in various states with varying tax regimes and have to put up with extra central levy which is not available as credit, GST is a corrective measure the Industry has been demanding for long. We are glad to see this coming to reality in near future. This will provide a level playing field to all manufacturers which are presently playing on relative advantages / disadvantages derived out of political maneovouring. We being located in NCR and capable of catering to large number of units in states of Rajasthan , Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab will have an advantage which is presently available to suppliers located in these states.

What will be the impact of volatility in commodity prices in the automotive sector?
The impact of volatility in commodity prices in the automobile sector is only moderate in view of large portion of import content and high engineering components. Yet the lower steel prices have enabled automobile manufacturers to absorb the inflationary costs of labour and other overheads, without increasing over all prices. The volumes also, and particularly the ever growing volumes in the hinterland, will continue this ability and keep the prices in check. Even if the commodity prices surge, the Industry will be able to easily pass on the additional costs to consumers in view of value proposition in the prevailing present prices.

 

 

 

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