Indian fiber optic cable manufacturer, Finolex Cables has announced its plans for capacity expansion of manufacturing facilities and investment in producing glass preforms. Finolex Cables has signed an agreement with the Maharashtra industries department to invest US$70 millioin to more than double its optic fiber cables capacity to 10 million fiber kilometers per annum.
Finolex Cables has fiber optic cable manufacturing facility in Goa and Pune. The company has its fiber drawing facility in Pune. Current production capacity of fiber optic cables stands at 4 million fiber kilometers. With the expansion, the company plans to achieve 10 millionn fiber kilometers capacity per annum for fiber optic cables.
Finolex management estimates taht the growth in the 5G rollout and demand in last mile connectivity in the country will lead to higher demand for optical fiber cables.
The statement issued by the company did not specify where the project will come up or when the work will begin and be completed.
This expansion initiative encompasses installation of fiber drawing towers and the implementation of backward integration for producing glass preforms, a major rawmaterial of optical fiber. Glass preforms are the core material, that is silica doped with dopants to manipulate refractive indices of core and cladding region of an optical fiber. The design of an optical fiber is done at the preform manufacturing stage.
Finolex currently buys preforms from preform suppliers for its fiber drawing factory. With this investment, Finolex Cables will be the second company in the country to manufacture glass preforms, a vital component for optical fiber production.
The proposed upgrade will see the draw tower capacity doubling to 8 million fiber kilomers per annum. This will help the company to supply optical fibers to its cable production facilities. The fiber from the drawing towers can reduce the company’s dependency on other fiber suppliers to achieve planned annual fiber optic cable production capacity of 10 million fiber kilometers from the current 4 million fiber kilometers.
This expansion will generate over 400 direct and indirect employment opportunities.
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