Interview of Mr. Saif Qureishi, Managing Director, in Electrical Monitor

CMYK
CMYK
Interview
Electrical Monitor November 1-15, 2007
'Future bright for transformer
lamination industry'
A leading player in transformer core
manufacture, KRYFS Power Components Ltd
foresees huge demand for transformer
lamination in the next five years. In an
interview with K Subash, the company's
Managing Director Saif Qureishi says
though the outlook for the lamination
industry is bright, he expects some hiccups
along the way, but will make the journey
more enjoyable and challenging for him. He
aims to retain his leading position in the
transformer lamination industry, and also
add a few more higher value-added products
in the near future. Excerpts:
You claim to have two modern plants for manufacturing transformer core. Are you in an advantageous position than others in this field? If yes
then how?
It has been an interesting journey from when we
started KRYFS Laminations (P) Ltd in December
1992, producing 10 MT per month. The major player
in this industry then was Guest Keen Williams
(GKW), and there were also many other players in
the field who were mainly from the unorganised sector. By the end of this year, we shall have a capacity to
produce 24,000 MT per annum, which is a huge leap
forward. Maximum production will be achieved with
imported CNC Georg (German) cut to length lines.
Today, we are the only manufacturer of transformer
core in the country to have 4 CNC Georg cut to length
lines, 1 Georg slitting machine and 2 SDRI
imported slitting machines. In addition,
in December 2007, we will have a Brockhaus Magnetic steel testing laboratory at
our works. Georg, Germany, is the world
leader in transformer lamination CNC
lines and Brockhaus, Germany, is the
world leader in magnetic material testing
technology. Obviously, having the best
equipment in the world coupled with an
enabling working culture ensures better
processes and therefore better products.
CRGO is a very sensitive steel and is also
called the "glass steel". If the material is
handled too often, the losses of the material increase and therefore it was a conscious decision to go in for automation.
Being a company into the manufacture
of CRGO strips what are the grades of
CRGO you use?
We use all grades of CRGO from almost all
suppliers in the world. We use the conventional grades of material like M3, M4, M5
and M6, and also use all Hi-B Domain
refined grades of POSCO, TKES, Nippon
Steel and A.K.Steel. In fact, we are the
only lamination manufacturer in India to
receive material from Posco's India Processing Centre for conversion into Laminations. All other POSCO material available in India from any other source is
through the non-POSCO-approved route
or the unofficial route.
It is an established fact that H1B grade
is considered to be the best among the
CRGO grades. What have you to say about this?
Of course, Hi-B grade of material has the lowest core
loss and since the development of
CRGO in the mid-1900s all producing mills have made significant
improvements in the manufacturing technology of CRGO, leading to
materials with lower losses. Hi-B
materials not only offer lower noload losses to the designer but are
also designed to operate at a much
higher flux density, therefore
reducing the overall size of the
transformer. However, the Hi-B
material availability and pricing
are an issue. As it is a closely-held
technology, only four countries and
five mills in the world make this HiB Domain refined material namely
A.K. Steel (USA), POSCO (Korea),
Nippon and Kawasaki (Japan) and
TKES (Germany). Therefore, the
price is high and many transformer
manufacturers and utilities are
rethinking the cost benefit analysis of paying higher capital costs
versus bearing the cost of higher
no-load losses during the life of the
transformer. In my view, where a
transformer is going to be continuously loaded for 50 per cent or
more times like in distribution
transformers, Hi-B material may
not be economical to use. However,
for Power transformers in rural
areas, which may not be loaded
intermittently or less than 50 per
cent of the time, Hi-B material may
make economic sense.
Are the manufacturers still facing problems in sourcing H1-B
grade CRGO? Do you use this
grade?
Yes, Hi-B CRGO is still in short sup-
5
ply in the world due to the high demand for this grade
of material. We regularly use this material as most of
our customers are the top power transformer manufacturers in India and abroad, and have a regular
need for this grade of material.
You had been honoured with export awards
twice. What are the products you export and
which are your prospective markets?
KRYFS had been honoured with the EEPC Export
Excellence award for outstanding export perform-
Contiuned on Page 6
CMYK
CMYK
6
Interview
Electrical Monitor November 1-15, 2007
'Future bright for transformer lamination industry'
Contiuned from Page 5
ance in 2004-'05 and the EEPC AllIndia Star Performer Award for export
excellence in 2005-'06. We export our
products to more than 30 countries all
over the world including USA, China,
Far East, Middle East and African
countries.
Reliance India Power Fund had
bought 15 per cent stake in your
company. In what way did it help?
Well, the first thing it did was to boost
our confidence. When a prestigious
fund like the Reliance India Power
Fund, which is held in equal measure
by two of the most respected financial
Powerhouses like Reliance Capital
and Temasek, choose to invest in our
company, it is a vote of confidence in
your operations and your company's
ability to compete in the market
place. The investment in KRYFS was
also one of the fastest investments
made by the Reliance India Power
fund in the sense that from the first
meeting to the signing of the agreement, including the due diligence,
took just 90 days.
Second, it has given us the capital to
grow our business aggressively and
also modernise our business by
cent (to make up for the existing
deficit plus new demand). If the
Power sector has to grow at this rate,
transformers have to be installed at
a rate, which are higher than the rate
of installation of generation capacity. As a thumb rule, 1 MW of generation capacity will require an addition
of 7 MVA of transformers in the system. If transformers have to be manufactured, core has to be produced
as that is the heart of the transformer. 1 MVA of transformer typically requires 1 MT of CRGO transformer lamination. Therefore, for a
78,500 MW addition in the generation capacity in the 11th Five-Year
Plan, the new transformer require-
installing the latest machinery. Third,
it has also made us a more responsible
corporate citizen by bringing in better
systems and transparency in our
operations.
With the government setting a target of 78,500 MW capacity addition
in the Eleventh Five-Year Plan how
do you foresee the prospects for
your business?
Let us put it this way - If the Indian
economy has to grow at around 8 to 9
per cent per annum, the Power sector
has to grow at around 13 to 15 per
ment will be of the order of 549,500
MVA, and the requirement over a
five-year period for transformer laminations will be around 550,000 MT.
This is in addition to the replacement demand of exisiting transformers. So the future does look bright,
however, we expect some hiccups
along the way too, but that should
only make the journey more enjoyable and challenging.
What are your future plans for the
company?
We plan to get into related products
in the Power sector and grow our
company organically and inorganically. We hope to retain our
leading position in the transformer
lamination industry and also add a
couple of more higher value-added
products by forward integration in
the near future.
Land requirement for power
projects to be optimised
By Mrinalini Prasad
ower Ministry has decided to make optimum use of land for
power plants to be set up. At present, land requirement are
worked out on the basis of norms of 1 acre per MW for main plant,
0.5 acre per MW for ash dyke. A project of 2x500 MW on an average
require 1900 acre for main plant, ash dyke and residential colony.
The ministry has asked Central Electricity Authority (CEA) to find
out the possibility for optimum land requirement for thermal
power plants.
A senior ministry official said that availability of land and water
are the key primary ingredients in project formulation. Due to
scarcity of land and
escalation in the cost of
land, land acquisition
related problems and
related Rehabilitation &
Resettlement issues, it
is imperative that power
projects being planned
in the country should be
based on state of art
technology. The compact designing of the
project could result in
substantial saving in
the context of land requirement.
CEA informed the ministry that there is a possibility of reducing
land requirement considerably by designing multistory colonies,
setting up of integrated projects for utilization of ash and compact
designing of the main plant area. CEA officials informed that savings up to 25% could be achieved in the context of land requirement
in setting up a power project.
Meanwhile, the ministry has also asked CEA to examine the possibility of the utilization of heat wasted from the power plant
effectively and suggested that possibility of locating a cement
plant or tie up with a cement manufacturer for ash utilization
must be explored.
P