As Indias Prime Minister Narendra Modi bolsters national energy projects, the countrys transformer oil manufacturers expect a significant hike in demand.
Sentiment toward investing in power projects has improved in the three months since Modi took office, Apar Industries Ltd.s vice president, Sanjay Abhyankar, told Lube Report Asia. New power projects are taking shape, and these projects need transformer oil.
The growth in the domestic power sector in the fiscal year 2014 was constrained due to issues relating to the environment and coal supply, but with the Modi governments efforts to solve the problem by combining the power and coal ministries, the problem of supplying coal to the power sector will be minimized to a great extent, Abhyankar continued. The recent clearance of thermal projects is an indication of the new governments impetus [to spur] power sector reforms.
Abhyankar mentioned projects such as a 380 megawatt greenfield gas-based combined power project for the Gas Authority of India Ltd. in Guna, Madhya Pradesh, a 500 MW coal-based plant for Tata Power in Mumbai, and two 250 MW thermal plants for Bihar State Power Generation Co. in Begusarai, Bihar.
Apar is evenly poised to take advantage of the governments power sector reforms, he added. Due to [Apars] development of many new technologies and products, such as extra high-voltage transformer oils, [the companys] specialty oils division experienced a growth of 9.2 percent in terms of volume in 2013 despite a slowdown in the power sector and automotive sector.
Apar Industries Ltd. is Indias largest supplier of transformer oils and its fifth-largest lubricants supplier – after Indian Oil Corp., Hindustan Petroleum, Bharat Petroleum and Castrol.