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Technology Upgradation of the Steel Wire Industry in India:
Technology
upgradation of the Steel Wire Industry in India has been possible due to
sustained efforts on the part of the manufacturers for production of
sophisticated categories of Steel Wires. R&D Cells of Steel Wire Manufacturers
are doing laudable work in this direction. SWMAI encourages these efforts
for continuity of high standard of performance of the industry.
Contemporary Status of the Indian Steel Wire Industry:
The Indian
wire industry has been largely driven by the growth of the infrastructure and
automobile sector.
During April, 2004 to March,
2005 as per the analysis of the Ministry of Steel, production of steel wires, in
various grades, in the organized sector, was approximately 400,000 tonnes.
The following
disturbing position emerges from the Steel Ministry Report:
i)
Total number of Wire Drawing Units registered with Steel Ministry: 100
with annual capacity of 1,475,750 tonnes.
ii)
Out of these registered units, 26 with annual capacity of 502,585 tonnes
are working.
iii)
Although these 26 working units have achieved capacity utilization of 86 per
cent, the closure of 74 registered units in the organized sector, has hardly any
impact on supply-demand scenario.
Out of these, it is seen that this industry is growing about 5-7% during
last two years. The demand of wires will be expected to increase in leaps and
bounds in the years to come. The per capita consumption of wire out of per
capita consumption of steel is only 5%. However, if pace of development picks up
it may increase to 7 – 8% in the domestic market.
In our
Country, if we closely look at the wire demands, almost 88% for wires is in
plain carbon steel grades, 5% would be in Stainless Steel and another balance
would be in Alloy Steel Wires.
On further
analysis, the plain carbon wire revealed that almost 75 to 80% of this is in the
form of black/ uncoated wires and only about 20 to 25% is in the Galvanized Wire
sector or Copper coated, Bronze coated and other coating materials.
It is for the
wire industry to meet the challenges both in the domestic and the world by
taking full advantage of their capacities, updating the technology, going for
more value added products, reduction in cost and striving for continuous
improvement, look for export opportunities with innovation and creativity.
Global
Scenario of the Steel Wire Industry:
In 2005 the
Global wire business has been something like 43 million tons and in terms of
Dollars it is US $ 20 billion. This market is also expected to grow to some 54
million tons of wires by 2010 and in Dollar terms it would be something like US
$ 25 billion. North America, Europe and South East Asia each account for
approximately 25% of the Global demand for the Steel Wires. Coupled with this,
we are also growing at 5%. This as I
explained to you earlier, is in the infrastructure, the auto sector and the
Automobile sector.
Export
A look at the
exports of wires, we would find that in the last five years there has been a
slow and steady increase of export of wires from our Country. But totally if we
look at the exports figures of India it only forms 1% of the Global exports of
wire business.
WIRE ROPE INDUSTRY IN INDIA
Indian Wire Rope Manufacturers
commenced production in early 1960s in technical collaboration with various
foreign manufacturers. Gradually, they became self-reliant in technology and
since then, Indian Manufacturers have established and widened their product
range for fulfilling the requirements of wire ropes in India and abroad for
various applications, some of which are mentioned below:
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General Engineering Purpose |
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Underground Mining Purpose |
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Surface Mining Purpose |
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Oil Drilling Ropes |
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Shipping Ropes |
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Aerial Ropes |
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Elevator Ropes |
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Rotation-resistant Ropes |
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Rotation-resistant Hyflex Ropes |
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Bridge Ropes |
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Stainless Steel Ropes |
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Spiral Strands |
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Fishing Ropes |
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