DIGITAL EDITION
MAGAZINE SECTION
COVER STORY
Power Electronic Industry Analysis Year Ending March 2023...
MID-YEAR ANALYSIS
Softdisk Findings: Growth Projections for March 2024...
EDITORIAL
UPS Industry Records 5.7% Growth...
SPECIAL
Classification of UPS Battery - a Costly interruption?...
SOFTWARE
WINDOWS 7 : Too good a software...
BUSINESS
Retailing Market : Now making a statement...
FEATURE
Gender Equity : Not an even match...
TECHNOLOGY
Technology : The new education Enabler...
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Evolution and Direction of Intelligent Network Architecture...
INTERNET
Wireless IP-based communications architecture...

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COVER STORY
Power Electronic Industry Analysis Year Ending March 2020

GROWTH DROPPED !

The year 2019-2020 was a dampener of sorts for the Power Electronic Industry. Some grew while many failed to do so. Losing the race by recording a 2% drop in revenues against last fiscal.

The industry netted revenues to the tune of INR 6495.45 crore. This is exclusively the end-user sales figure. However the over all industry revenue was estimated at INR 6745.45 crore approx.

The reason why the total industry revenue is much higher then the actual end-user sales is because many a companies procure finished products from others & brand them as theirs, and our survey team gets the turnover from both, resulting in duplication. With nearly 223 companies responding to our survey,  giving us the information we sought in great detail, knowing fully well how much the company has man-ufactured with excise paid. And also trying to find out, which companies procure finished products from others & brand them as theirs, an exercise which we have been doing only since last four five years, we did all of it again to give continuity to the process.  Out of 223 companies responding only 132 companies were awarded with SD Ratings.

However most of companies are in a spot of bother, with Covid-19 Pandemic causing shut down since mid March 2020, leaving many companies not able execute orders by March end. We are sure the figure which we have arrived at i.e. the actual end-user sales  revenue of  INR 6595.45 crore mark will never be even touched in current fiscal 2020-2021. There will be no wonders if growth drops by 16 to 18 percent.

Growth wise it has been a  mixed year with some of the majors growing while others dipping.

Revenue-wise : This year 2019-20, the industry was not able to touch previous fiscals revenue and drop of 2.0% in revenue was recorded. A clear indicator of a slow down over past years. The GDP currently at a all time low dropped by 22% in the first quarter, however spew of measures indicated by finance ministry and infusion  of 70000 crore in a banking systems augurs good, considering the industry may now get funds for there routine payments necessary to maintain their  companies- industries eco-system.

Volume-wise : Industry sales also went down by 3.40% over previous year in volume terms. This clearly indicates shrinking margins in cases of orders obtained thru tenders and sales to SI’s. One must be clear in mind that this is a very good performance considering the stiff competition and the squeezed margins in view of hammering the companies got during the global economic meltdown & currently facing Indian Rupee slide and a strong dollar value.

Of the total revenue of 6730.54 crores, Online UPSs accounted for 95% while Offline & line interactive UPS show a drop in growth of 16% in volume terms and not have not been a significant contributor in decrease in revenue terms, it increasingly becoming a low margin a  high volume game. In revenue term they contributed nearly 1.6% to the Total Industry revenue. while other products  including servos & change of batteries not under maintenance accounting for the rest.

We have not included the Home UPS sales figure in this analysis. Sale of SPCUs has definitely picked up. Most SME level UPS manufacturers are moving towards SPCUs. Of the total revenue organized sector accounted for nearly 81% while 19% came through semi organized and unorganized sector.

SD FINDINGS

Softdisk went about finding the state of the industry and also how deep they were actually effected by lock down and as India continues to unlock. The first quarter of the financial year 2020-21 was tragic as compared to last year. Projects have been few but the demands continue, There was a bit of lul in the second quarter due to partial reopening fund flow issues. In the current fiscal no major projects came up during that period.  The overall effect is putting expansion plans on hold. However things will improve in third quarter with government taking lots of measures and investing a lot of infrastructure. Growth for big IT, ITES & TELCOM segment even during recessionary trend continued its positive trend for tower infrastructure. This has kept mid segment market for UPS going well (up-to 200KVA). A small power data center with power requirement of 20, 60 to 200KVA rating are also going as per plans.  Softdisk believes that more and more people are moving towards Solar. Some have even manufactured and installed Grid Sharing Solar UPS, with hybrid charge facility  (Photovoltaic & Mains). With consolidation being the mantra for Industry. Consul being  acquired by Fuji Japan, one can say the entire Online UPS market can be divided into following APC-Schneider, Vertiv-Liebert, Legrand-Numeric, Hitachi-Hirel, Fuji-Consul, AVO, Eaton, Socomec  & Other major players BPE, CyberPower, Power One, Techser, Uniline & Hykon & the rest.   Talking of market share Vertiv Emerson has the highest market share of 12.00% followed closely by APC SCHNEIDER 11.00% Numeric 10.00%  followed by Hitachi 7.00% , Fuji- Consul 7.00%, AVO 3.00%, Eaton 2.00  & so on as shown in graph above.  While other major players account for rest.

SOFTDISK  ESTIMATES

Softdisk now predicts a drop of over to 18 percent that the total industry revenue will touch INR 6000 crore mark by March, 2021 itself is in doubt. We talked to Industry Captains trying to know what the Industry leaders thought. Many had little or no doubt to what Softdisk has predicted earlier, even though this response was at time when the global economies were trying to come out of worst ever economic crises, and Indian market was also undergoing Lock Down & Chinese Aggression Impact. Softdisk remains committed to transparent reporting, in-depth analysis and always throwing up forecast & estimates which you can Rely Upon.

We have Faith, You Rely on us, We Rely on facts.

According to Mr. N K Agrawal of Delhi based Microtek in 2019-20 market have remained steady. However,cannot  finish to there expected levels as nation wide lock down came into effect during the last fortnight of March 2020. Well order in hand could not be executed, even the first quarter of 2020- 21 was badly effected due to lock down & Unlock restrictions. The overall market for UPS and SPCUs is still there, but the orders are not flowing as usual. Despite being the power situation improving, still demand for power backup solutions is growing. Specially for Solar PCUs the market. The government is also promoting renewable solar energy and providing subsidy also at various places. The consumers are also becoming more aware and they understand that by one time investment on solar PCUs, in the long run they are going to save lot of money in electricity bills.  This financial year the economy world over is moving under the shadow of Covid-19 pandemic & recession due to US trade war with China.  He believes that the market may slowdown further & drop by nearly 20%, it will not impact Indian markets to that extent if some vaccines are developed against Corona Virus. In-spite of all this we still feel that the UPS Segment will show a goodish business this second half of this fiscal, although very low, he laments. In today’s global business environment the acquisitions & takeovers will keep happening depending on the requirement and aspirations of acquirer company.

Here it is worth mentioning that Softdisk figure does not include the revenue generated by Inverters, which too is effected by the slow down

Mr. Rajaram Ramamoorthy, Bangalore based Electronics & Controls situation in the Covid pandemic lockdown were pretty worse he sad, “we had to offer services to certain customers in Banking, Government and Healthcare. However, there were a lot of difficulties faced in the movement of service personnel and spare parts due to lack of transportation facilities. There were also demands for supply of new UPS, but we could not ship the stock due to freight services not being available. Engineers had to take special permission from local authorities which was very difficult. It was a challenging time to manage customers who needed the support” he further laments as unlock started, the big challenge was that different states had their own unlock plans and being a company with customer base across India, we faced a lot of challenges with support. However, Karnataka had allowed Industries to operate from early May, 2020 by following the SOP for Social Distancing and Sanitization of the premises.  Also our large factory was helpful to maintain distances in the work environment. We had a gradual ramp up of activities and we could work on the manufacturing of pending orders. Though Industries were allowed to operate, the supply chain was not functioning as many component suppliers were in containment zones in the city. The lack of supply chain led to very poor productivity for a couple of months till July 2020.  As a normal practice, our business comes through references, tenders and from repeat customers and we don't get customers through cold calls / visits. Hence, we did not face a big challenge after unlock started. Due to the impact of the Pandemic, all businesses have slowed down and it has had an impact on our service revenues. First quarter being completely wiped out due to lockdown, uncertainties on the customer side has had direct revenue impact as customers resorted to cost cutting mechanisms to reduce the impact of the slow down. Hopefully, the remainder of the year should get its respective revenues. However, we expect a drop in service revenues for the year.”

On the question of how do you find the industry coping up till March 2021, he believes revenue impact will certainly have an affect the profitability, if downsizing of cost is not an option. Industry does not have any option other than managing costs and ensuring that business is not lost. Continuous relationship with Customers is important. We still do not know how long this situation will continue. Still in many places, there is no public transport.  If the situation continues or worsens, we have to be ready and plan for such a prolonged situation. he further adds, “Fiscal 2021-22 hopefully should be better as the vaccine is expected and can further aid in the movement of people. Economy should pick up and should result in more activity. Now is the time to explore new verticals and discuss with Customers how we can be of more value.  

Talking on Chinese aggression at LAC, he laments, “China has been a major source of electronic components. The Indian UPS market is very much dependent on imports. Many UPS OEMs import UPS and sell as is from imported stock & warehouses. E&C has never been in the business of import and sell from stock. Even in the past, imports of certain models were customized locally for Indian conditions to make them more robust, and tested thoroughly before shipment. Many of our models are manufactured in Bangalore to suit customer specifications, add on accessories, tested and shipped. We do a lot of value add. Having said the above, as of today, there are no restrictions of imports (from China). There was a brief period of delay but that was also due to some COVID related reasons. Even if it is planned, there should be a period of minimum five years for the industries to become self reliant on inputs. Sudden stop of imports will lead to bringing the economy to its knees with serious irreversible impact. ATMANIRBHAR BHARAT is a term which has suddenly caught momentum since the announcement made by the PM. If there is a change, the change has to be gradual with all sorts of encouragement by the Government over a period of time – say 5- 10 years so that the required supplier ecosystem can be built in India. As it stands, the manufacturing ecosystem/infrastructure is very limited compared to the consumption of India, laments. 

R K Bansal Managing Director Uniline Energy Systems Pvt. Ltd. Covid-19, is an unprecedented situation, never imagined in the wildest of dreams that whole world will come to a halt. Many industries suffered losses like Aviation, tourism, transport almost all with only exception being those related to Medical services during the lock down, as unlock began things started with restriction which led to less production & of course less demand. Things are still not fully normal, but better then having no business. Our aim is survival, if we don’t suffer losses it will like making benefit”, he further adds “Life is more precious”, even if don’t suffer loses it will be great. They got very big a order, just before the pandemic, this helped as they are now working on them and also getting few new businesses here and there as the unlock started. He elaborated on this issue out look of industry, according to him when we speak about market, we have an enterprise market segment in mind. Most of the top notch UPS companies like  Vertiv, APC, Eaton, Numeric etc to some extent mostly serve this business segment. Our strength lies in Govt. sector & PSUs. As per our understanding, the market segment revenue (excluding precision A/C, Electrical distribution, etc.)  for UPS Systems is close to INR 5500 Cr. Looking at the present market scenario, the revenue collection from this segment shall be within INR 4500 Crore in the current fiscal this year that too looking as optimistic as we are. He further laments, the military stand off with China reduced purchase by Govt. departments & PSUs have put their expansion plans put on hold. Most big names in IT, ITES companies came to a halt with many a staff working from home. With army dominating the peaks of crucial mountaintops terrain, purchases have slowly began, although stand-off continues I don’t see much reduction in purchases from china in next couple of years. It will take some time for “Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan” to take effect. Further there is more emphasis on best utilization of existing IT facilities and also human resource. According to him fluctuation in rupee price not only raised import bills of raw material cost, depreciating value of Indian Rupee, overall input cost has increased.

Mr. Narayan Sabhahit Managing Director, Techser Power Solution Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore, believes that the financial year 2019-20 was a steady until the last week, not much growth was witnessed but companies were able to meet their previous revenues almost. Current fiscal is difficult one with under Covid-19 Pandemic. As unlock started Techser started working on previous years incomplete orders with following all Govt. guidelines. We constantly monitored every thing & consciously decided to take new orders without 'cut-throat' competition, however we are steadily recovering. We diligently decided this  as it is better to work on healthy orders rather that 'vanity orders' which could only boost top-line but adversely affect profitability. We don’t bother about market share & are currently targeting 100 crore for the current fiscal. Even during lock down services and maintenance were our priorities. We have made a paradigm shift    in our approach, our production facility at Mysore has been upgraded & we have now started manufacturing 3ph-3ph UPSs with higher ratings. The year also has been a year of consolidation with respect to our restructuring manufacturing and service offerings. We have highly trained and hardworking work force which will certainly bounce back as the market becomes steadier. Some of the major forecasted orders previous year did not materialize as there were unprecedented delays in decision process. They spilled over to this financial year which we availed as unlock began.

Our Indigenous drive is showing results both in new market and service domain as PM announced the “ATMANIRBHAR BHARAT ABIHYAN”, we are fully geared up for production of all types of Single Phase & three phase UPSs & SPCUs in large numbers.  With this announcement interpretation of word ‘development’ in its correct form has to be taken seriously by the concerned agencies / authorities.

These are the areas where continuity of power is very essential, since these companies are facing the Global Challenge. He hopes that businesses will come to pre Covid levels by Jan 2021. Advent of GST has been very good but there are certain things that needs to be clarified as UPSs are put under18% bracket while Batteries are put under 28 percent bracket, which defeats the very purpose of continuity of Power.

According to Mr. Christo George of Hykon India Limited. Thrissur. The whole world is going through a period of uncertainty due to COVID 19. The impact of COVID 19 is affecting in every industry in India including UPS and Solar Industries. Last few years the growth of UPS had reduced considerably. In the year 2020-2021 there was an expectation that UPS segment will have a better growth than the previous years. But unfortunately and unexpectedly, due to COVID 19, instead of growth, UPS industry is seeing a slump down of around 20%. Due to COVID, in most of the Industries, the way of work had changed altogether. The concept of Work from Home had evolved in many Industries and this powered a Quantum growth in Digital based Industries. But sadly, this growth was not able to enjoy by the UPS industries as in the home segment had fully switched from Desk top PCs to Laptop PCs which doesn't need UPS. Because of this, instead of having a growth the UPS up to 3 KVA, had a drop in sales around 30%. This drop is affecting the MSME segment tremendously. The financial sector, Tourism & Travels - Hospitality segment, Healthcare/hospitals are the major customers for UPS from 3 KVA to 10KVA. These segments will take time to revive as it is still not restarted after the lock down and not fully operational. Many big projects got stuck due to lock down. This also affected the sales of UPS above 30KVA. But the positive side is that Indian UPS manufacturer will grow as the import from China is getting tougher and cost of import is getting higher than before Lock down. So, it can be expected that, Indian UPS companies will have a better growth in the coming months. Indian companies should start focusing in manufacturing instead of importing finished UPS from other countries. Hykon is having own manufacturing unit for UPS, and the production of UPS is not much affected so far. We can be competitive by importing components and do the manufacturing of UPS in India. In future, it's expected that, UPS segment will grow once we overcome the COVID situation.  Solar UPS segment will grow as that segment is growing fast. In SPCUs India companies only most SME’s are manufacturing off-grid PCUs. There is a good growth for SPCUs in home segments. That will affect the growth of inverter segment as it become Solar Home UPS. GST is good for the industries as the taxation becomes a standard throughout the country. But taking separate registration in each state takes away the Ease-of- doing business. Another hurdle is getting back the refund of GST. As it’s taking long time, it affect the working capital and fund flow. The Business model for UPS is changing and many companies have to switch over to other areas like Solar Electric Charging stations and Lithium Ion battery packs. So more acquisitions will happen in the coming years. Lithium batteries is a Disruptive Technology which will disrupt the conventional Lead acid batteries. The cost of Li-Ion batteries are coming down and it will be at par with the LA in the next two years. Against the common belief Lithium ion batteries are not having any poisonous or hazardous materials or contents likein LA batteries. So there is no need for any concerns in recycling like in the case of LA batteries 95% of contents are – Aluminium & Copper which can be easily recycled. 2-3% of Lithium also is recyclable.

There is lot of emphasis on “ATMANIRBHAR BHARAT ABHYAN.” Sincere Indian companies are catching up on technology front vis-à-vis there Chinese counterparts, this will surely give a boost to the manufacturing set ups in India. One advantage in future is that the cost of production in China will be going up. Once the scale of operations of Indian companies go up, Indian companies can compete with Chinese Companies.

Shri Rabindra Agrawal of Kolkata based Switching AVO Electro Power Ltd., said that Covid-19 pandemic and the ensuing lock down is certainly not a good state of affairs for the industry everything was closed, but we had to give our service to hospitals, banks & their ATMs, around 60-70% of ATM market is with us, so service had to be continued. We spoke to DM’s of most districts, as our services are not limited to regions but spread across the length & breadth of the country. We are proud, our hard-working & sincere service engineers took full precautions wearing protective gear & managed to serve our customers.  All thanks to their will power, we managed to serve, also because of the service monitoring system we had developed which can be assessed by customer using our App. The complaint registered in app is visible in  central system which alerts the nearest service engineer cutting down the time, once alert goes, he connects to the customer on phone & takes stock of the problem, he would immediately arrange an e-Pass by speaking to district magistrate or police authorities and gets an E- PASS, which would allow him to navigate to place where the UPS is installed. In rural areas they even traveled using bicycles up-to 150 kms. Our customers really appreciated there efforts.

Post lock down, we started getting some orders & few major once. He also believes that in Reverse auction there is an urge to become L-1 even if it is at the cost of going down on bills of inputs. He quoted one such tender of major PCS in which a small company has quoted between 15-20% below cost and refused to supply after the tender was passed in its favor. One should always read the complete tender document carefully. As we, and another company were L2, we were asked to match the tender rates, as it was a case of providing uninterrupted  power backup for 30000 ventilators, which the PSU was manufacturing to be used in Covid Hospitals across the country. We shared the tender with the other company at below input cost levels and continued the process, it was more of a humanitarians effort then business. We must mature to the level of ensuring that we don’t cut each other’s legs.

We believe that, one must have “SHRDHA & SUBURE”; while doing his “KARMA”, Faith and Patience in doing his duty. And the God will certainly help you.

He further adds that the market has been customer driven and price plays a decisive role in most cases. Can Customers be explained the de-merits of reverse auction and the gain they will have in normal tendering process. Yes, this is a must.

The battery suppliers must not undercut the UPS OEMs and go direct to the same customers that UPS OEMs helped develop for the battery suppliers. The UPS industry needs a complete make over. All manufacturers must get together, there is enough scope in the market for everyone to grow.

Mr. I B Rao & Mr. M R Rajesh of Power One Micro Systems Pvt. Ltd. said last two years were good for us. But last fortnight of the last fiscal with lock down due to Covid-19 Pandemic resulted in non delivery & invoicing. Still we won’t say it was bad year, but given those 15 days year, for sure, “we would have over taken last year’s turnover.”

Post lock down it has been difficult with no major tenders from the Govt. and PSUs. The market has not been able to pick up, the way it did in previous fiscals. Of course there are projects from SI’s and in health sector but our philosophy of not to sell by quoting below the belt is not allowing us to flourish the way we want. We have seen companies quoting below the input costs  and suffering as today most tenders come with 5 years maintenance,  you can’t go for a cheap product available in China and serve the for five years. It will make you pay a lot to towards conveyance, which many company don’t think while bidding. Our production facility uses components mostly from Vietnam and Taiwan. We tried Chinese product some years back but the failure rate made it a burden, imports from China is feasibly only for those who pitch tent to make quick bugs and believe in “Sell & Forget”.

Being as an Indian, we want self-reliant India. “ATMA NIRBHAR BHARAT” is good but to achieve this goal, a balanced effort both by Govt, and companies in private sector needs to be taken. Until the country creates sufficient infrastructure to manufacture components in quantities,  it will be difficult to stay without imports.

It will take few years for “ATMA NIRBHAR BHARAT” to take shape.   

Mr. Rajesh lamented, GST is good but classification should be re-considered as industrial battery at 18% and Motor vehicle batteries at 28%. This will remove the confusion amongst UPS manufacturers. A UPS without a battery does not solve its purpose of providing power continuity.

According to Mr. Sriram Ramkrishnan, we as the UPS industry are all facing an unprecedented situation with a lot of uncertainty. On one hand the COVID-19 Pandemic and resultant Lockdown has resulted in a large negative impact on the first quarter sales. While there was a decent recovery in Q2 with hopes of sustained growth in Q3, there is uncertainty on Q4 and next year Q1 due to the lack of new project initiation by the Government & in the Private sector in H1 of this year. Only ongoing projects from last year are proceeding forward while new projects have been postponed due to the global uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and consequent lock down impact on the economy.

Secondly, the border conflict and jousting between India & China has created uncertainty on the supply chain front from China. We at Fuji Electric have invested heavily in local R&D and manufacturing in India but we are still dependent on many electronic components from China as China is the only viable source for many electronic items as most of the Global MNC have moved their electronic component manufacturing to China. It will take us many years to develop alternates and in the meantime we have uncertainty on potential changes in custom duty tariffs as well as supply chain disruptions if the India-China relations sour further.

Thirdly we have uncertainty on the GST rates for UPS with Battery being treated as Combined or Mixed supply. We need to come together as an Industry to get clarity on GST rates for UPS and also ensure there will be no penalty for past supplies even if the ruling is not favorable to the current practices we are following. Further, we as an Industry should ensure we are not under cutting each other on price and warranty terms as business costs are increasing and will increase further due to the uncertainty. Only this type of cooperation among all key stakeholders in the Industry will help us to survive this challenging period and also have strength to reap the benefits when the situation improves.  

Lack of Govt. orders and big projects from PSUs need to start early. As of now following all Govt. restrictions, we are contacting the references, we have received and finalizing orders, as we progress  completing a  few big orders pending because of lock down.

According to Mr. Y B Suresh of TPC during lock down, every thing was shut, except Hospitals and Banks,  as the unlock started we also slowly opened following all Govt. directions,  smaller players took bigger hit as they were only few pending orders and few unfinished projects. Of the few pending order some customers cancelled their orders while some kept it abeyance due to paucity of funds. Smaller players are finding it increasingly difficult to access the new customer and volume based order because of the big players are coming out with very competitive price and products ranges. As such ”Stock, Store & Supply” has never been our philosophy.

That is the reason that most of the small and medium range UPS manufacturers are now moving towards SPCUs and in even commissioning small sized Off Grid, Hybrid and Grid tie Solar Power Plants. Earlier banks used to be our priority customers but now with reverse auction, we are out of it.  So, Small player should focus on providing effective service support to retain their existing and grow in their reference market and focus on  providing complete solution to customers and focus much on related products requirement in existing customer base.

According to Mr. Shankar C Nagali of Managing Director of Cosmic Micro Systems, With the growing business complexities and GST law evolving in India, the lock down has added more pressure with restricted movements, service engineers are finding it difficult to provide service in far flung areas. During lock down with no new sales, providing service support became increasingly difficult. Once unlock started there were lot of travel restriction which brought its own share of difficulty. Many of our orders are not just UPS supplies, but UPS tailored to the customers need. We have specialized in Customization, so the orders for Customized UPSs which were pending due to complete lock down were completed as unlock started.

Furthermore, GST execution during lock down was not stopped as it is widely feared for penalties imposed on delays,  the GST implementation has a cost of compliance attached to it. This was also bourn by small manufacturers.

It seems that this cost of compliance is high for the small-scale manufacturers and traders, who have also protested the same. They may end up pricing their goods at higher rates this would cause inflation to rise.

According to Mr. Vinod of Bangalore based Arvi Systems and controls, India’s GDP India’s GDP which was all time by dipping 22% in first quarter of the current fiscal, this was an all time low but this was bound to happen due to complete lock down for almost two months. Unprecedented situations arising out of unprecedented times.

We are an indigenous production team. We start from scratch, all our PCBs are designed in-house   Although the market was slow to pick up,  The rigidity of the Indian economy was reflected during Covid-19 Pandemic. As it seems the Pandemic will carry on though out the current  fiscal. Industry will also dip by at least 15%.

It is not that we are not getting order, we got orders for large 200KVA UPSs in 12 numbers for CNC applications. Regular orders  have started trickling in. Focus has to be on what we have to achieve. Covid-19 Pandemic has its own share just difficulty added to the of operations. GST implementation has eased out taxation difficulties to great extent.

Mr. Krishnamoorthy, MD Powernet Solutions Pvt. Ltd.  says innovation is the key to success of any manufacturer, It cannot be run of the mill specially in this era of fierce competition and squeezing margins,  along with regular UPS and SPCUs, we have started manufacturing Lift UPS with logic boards, so that no life is truck in between floors. We have become OEMs to many a established brands in a short span of time and are expected to do much better in coming years. The lock down period was same for all. But we had orders, we are keen to come back to our usual business levels. Keep updating the technology is the mantra for all UPS companies to survive. Many a Korean & Taiwan companies have been procuring UPSs with lift  logic. We are capable of making such UPSs which can support lift to go up to 60 floors. No wonders the company is thriving in adversity. According to Mr. Sumanth Kumar of PNS Systems, Covid-19 Pandemic lock down has resulted in the loss in business, next year revenues are certainly going to be down. Post lock down during unlock movements are restricted.  With weekly disinfecting the unit and office areas maintenance is taking its toll. The way we do business is not as usual.

Sumant laments, there has been a fear among many manufacturers of UPS Systems that the products which are under composite supply might also be wrongly assessed as mix supply due to lack of clarity and understanding of the product which falls under composite supply. It has to be understood that the basic function of the UPS System is to provide power back-up during power failure. When batteries are separated from the UPS Systems, the primary function of providing uninterrupted power to the loads gets defeated.

This needs to be understood during product evaluation, assessments and audit. Incorrect assessments lead to unprecedented tax liabilities for MSMEs and slow down the growth of power industry. He adds  now it is essential for the survival to have another vertical in the business along with UPS Systems for growth. Probably, exploring the business opportunities in lithium-ion batteries could be a good option in the days to come.

Mr. Shenoy of Alpha Power Solutions said, as we reel under Covid-19 pandemic post lock down as we started working with 50 % of the total staff strength on a rational basis following the Govt. Guidelines. We have changed our strategies and started focusing more on working as OEMs for many of the companies which used to import from china, and we have achieved maximum success getting such orders. We also approached many of the traders who were dealing with foreign products and made them understand about our quality and technical strength our Indian product resulting in  above mentioned task has given us a overwhelming success, enabling us to achieve an all time high over in 2nd quarter of fiscal 2020-21. He lamented, based on the real time figures I can confidently say that the Indian industry is moving towards a brighter future. Now the make in India wave is all around. So we have seen many of the Indian consumers started opting made in India products. We have never imported or sourced any components from china till date, we always believed in make in India and we were in support of Indian vendors. Not to forget, Govt. should come out with a better GST tax structure which can boost our sales & should come out with strict import policies. Instruct all government and public sectors to buy made in India products on merit. Not to mention the exporting we are doing to UK, Singapore and other Arab / African countries. We found many of the customers are ready to pay more if the quality of Indian product is at par with the MNC products. So even if the manufacturing cost increases by procuring materials locally, one can still manage to get the orders and projects by maintaining the quality.

According to Amitansu Satpathy, MD, Best Power Equipments India Pvt Ltd., today with Covid-19 pandemic still on we take all precautions to under take every operations weather be it in our newly established 3ph-3ph UPS manufacturing facility in Greater Noida spread over 15000 sq ft. or serving the customer. We have expanded various countries in Asia. In Philippines, we have a strong distributing network headed by some distributors, our presence in every district of Phillippines and as in India there also we are one of the largest player in  that country. Adding further he says we view the present market scenario as an opportunity to strengthen not only in India but all over Asia.

We see a huge opportunity in India, as work from home culture needs big Data Centre support, there by increasing the increasing the need  for power backups. We have taken a careful decision not to take up orders were we have to cut down on margins this has lead to increased profitability where we are successful to a great extent and the results are showing. This new GSTN system of taxation though is very useful but still commenting before complete implementation, GST Audit etc. will be pre-mature, however movement of goods to various part of the country has been eased a lot, he laments. BPE are one of most innovative & largest Indian UPS manufacturers in the country. There Modular UPSs are rated to be one of the best in the country. 

Since the acquisition of Numeric by Legrand, Numeric handed over the brand with a turn over 651 crores has been consistently doing well under the leadership of  Mr. Palash Nandy and has now crossed 680 crore mark.  According to him Softdisk acts a s a glue to the industry, and it gives a wide range of information from latest product news to in-depth articles on power electronic industry and its reviews & forecasts. The publication has been conducting surveys in the various segments of Power, Solar & IT  Industry and coming up with SD Awards. These surveys provide an in-depth analysis of the some segments of the Industry and users utilize it as one of their decision making tools and also as a guide of the Industry.

CONCLUSION :

Softdisk believes the Govt. should realize the importance of Power Continuity as it is the life line of major GDP contributors. Softdisk has seen it all over the past two & a half decades, more often then not some of the companies use a lot of word jugglery in there promos, it must be the same thing which some one else must be offering without making lot of noise and at a better price. It is one area where customers need to be watchful. Softdisk believes that if Manufacturers mad rush for sale will only decrease their profits and ultimately lead to their collapse. So UPS business is not rosy and bright but has still not lost its potential.

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How They Faired
SD's Top 10
Power Electronic Companies
SD's Top 10
Indian Power Electronic Companies
SD's Top 5
Online UPS Manufacturers
SD's Top 3
Line-Interactive UPS Manufacturers
SD's Top
Home UPS/CVT/Inverter Company
Special Awards
SD's UPS SURVEY
SD's UPS Users' Choice Awards 2023
Companies to Watch
SD Users' Satisfaction Rating
SD's SOLAR AWARDS
SD's Solar Market Analysis 2023
SD's Top 5, Indian Rooftop Solutions Company of the year ending March 2022-2023
SD's Top 3, Indian Grid Sharing Solar Power Solution Provider of the year 2022-2023
SD's Top 5, Indian SPCU (Non String) Manufacturers of the year 2022-2023
SD's Top 3, Indian Off-Grid / Hybrid Solar Power Solution Provider of the year 2022-2023