The Hindu Business Line : United Electrical exploring markets in Cuba, Venezuela

Kochi April 3 United Electrical Industries Ltd (UEIL), a Kerala state owned company manufacturing multi-function electronic meters, as part of its new marketing strategy is to explore markets for its products in Cuba and Venezuela.

Techno-economic discussion with the authorities in these two countries would be held soon, Mr R. Suku, Managing Director of the company, told Business Line.

Initial discussions were held with the Head of Missions of Cuba and Venezuela in New Delhi recently by a delegation comprising State Ministers Mr M.A. Baby, Mr P.K. Gurudasan and Mr N.P. Rajendran, and the Managing Director of the company. "The response was encouraging," he said.

The company manufactures multifunction electronic meters, motor starters and AB Switches for use in electricity supply.

Besides, discussions were also held with West Bengal and Tripura governments. Trial orders from the former are expected this month. It is also expanding its market base in Andhra Pradesh, he said.

Turnaround

The company, which has been in the red for long, has made turn around last fiscal with a significant growth in production and sales. The Kerala State Electricity Board, the captive buyer, is taking one lakh meters a month, he said. The unit, which was manufacturing only around 16,000 meters a month until a year ago, has raised its production to 1.57 lakh meters a month now.

With the introduction of multi-function meter with a memory to store six months reading, the demand has gone up substantially. "We are the only company in the public sector manufacturing such a product," he said.

The unit has achieved a turnover of Rs 46 crore last fiscal against Rs 7 crore the fiscal before. It has made a profit of Rs 1 crore in 2006-07 after wiping out the loss of Rs 1.46 crore incurred in 2005-06. The remaining accumulated loss could be cleared by June this year, he claimed.

The unit with a paid-up capital of Rs 4 crore has embarked on a diversification programme to manufacture water meters, which no other public sector units manufacture at present.

Another introduction would be "AB (air break) switch" for the KSEB. This would isolate power supply on 11 KV lines in the event of any accident. There is an order for 10,000 pieces from the KSEB, he said. It also manufactures motor starters.

No additional investment was needed for expanding the capacity.

However, for the water meter there would be a capital investment of Rs 20 lakh and that could be made available from its own resources now, he said.

To meet the growing demand, it would be setting up a new unit at Kuzhalmannam near Palakkad to where the manufacture of multifunction meters would be shifted. Components of this product such as integrated chips and microchips are imported from Switzerland and the US.

The change in the attitude of 400 workers of late and their cooperation has made it possible for the company to make the turn around, he said, adding "the trade unions have signed an MoU recently agreeing for no wage revision for three years".

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