Posted on 11 Nov 2015
APL Apollo Tubes Ltd, India's leading
ERW steel tubes manufacturer, is aiming to raise the production capacity from
present 1.05 million tonnes (mt) to 2.5 mt by 2020 and plans to set up
manufacturing facilities in Eastern India and Middle East. "The vision of
the company is to increase the capacity to 2.5 mt by 2020 and plans are afoot
to look at adding new plants in Eastern India and Middle East," said
Sanjay Gupta, chairman, APL Apollo.
Demand for steel pipes has been rising gradually at the
back on increased household income and infrastructure spending. To tap this
growing market, APL Apollo is planning to add additional facilities (brownfield
expansion) at its existing plants. For this, the company has placed orders for
five lines of HSU tube mill, the delivery of which is expected in the next
11-12 months, to augment its current capacity.
Further, the company is planning to build a greenfield
plant in East, where it does not have manufacturing facility at present. APL
Apollo is currently servicing Eastern India through its Sikandarabad plant.
While a reasonable demands exists for the ERW pipes in this region, freight
costs from Northern India imply low margins for the products. With the facility
in Eastern region, APL Apollo expects to shore up the margins which will
benefit the company in the long run.
In addition, APL Apollo, one of the major exporters of
steel pipes from India, plans to set up a new plant in Middle East to meet the
latent demand in Middle East and Africa (MENA) and European countries for ERW
pipes. The ME facility would be the production hub for APL Apollo's export
requirements.
