Indian Cable Industry’s Strong Performance in FY25, Major Expansions Underway
Indian cable manufacturers posted remarkable growth during FY25. With the exception of Optical Fibre Cable manufacturers, top players in the Indian cable industry reported an average revenue growth of about 16% during FY25.
Moreover, several Indian cable manufacturers have announced major CapEx.
Recap of FY25 Performance by Indian Cables & Wires Sector
Indian cable and wire industry majors posted remarkable growth during FY25.
Percentage YoY Revenue Growth of Major Indian Cable Companies
(FY25 vs FY24)
Metal-based Cable Manufacturers Report Strong Numbers
Polycab India, the country’s largest cable and wire manufacturer in terms of revenue, grew by 18.16% during FY25. The company’s revenue from its cables and wires segment stood at a staggering Rs. 19,236.63 crore.
KEI Industries posted a revenue of Rs. 9,176.96 crore from its cables and wires vertical, which is Year-over-Year (YoY) 25% higher than the company’s revenue from this segment.
Havells India and RR Kabel, two major players in the Indian cable industry, also posted strong financials with their FY25 wire & cable revenue at Rs. 7,183.63 crore and Rs. 6,688.76 crore respectively. While Havells’ annual wire and cable revenue grew by 13.71%, RR Kabel’s annual revenue from this segment grew by 14.74% YoY.
Cords Cable Industries Ltd., a Delhi-headquartered cable manufacturer which specialises in instrumentation and control cables, posted Rs. 794.56 crore as its consolidated revenue for FY25, growing by 27% YoY. Cords’ topline inched close to the Rs. 800 crore mark in FY25, a substantial achievement considering that the company entered the Rs. 500 crore club only 2 years ago.
Optical Fibre Cable Manufacturers Shrink
While most metal-based cable and wire manufacturers grew during FY25, performance of Indian OFC manufacturers was discouraging during the fiscal.
HFCL Ltd.’s FY25 revenue stood at Rs. 4,064.52 crore, 8.97% lower than its corresponding topline for the previous year.
Other OFC manufacturers such as Sterlite Technologies and Aksh Optifibre also took a hit. While STL’s annual revenue shrank by about 2%, Aksh Optifibre’s manufacturing segment topline (which deals in OFC manufacturing) plummeted by 45%.
Indian OFC manufacturers have been struggling for a while now, and have been unable to post healthy margins on account of several factors. Some of these factors include anti-dumping duties on India-made OFCs by European countries, and cheaper imports from China.
It can be speculated that considering the general condition of the Indian OFC manufacturers, HFCL decided to foray into the defence sector with the inauguration of its defence products factory in Hosur, Tamil Nadu.
UltraTech & Adani’s Entry into Cables & Wires Manufacturing
A major event during FY25 was the announcement by UltraTech and Adani Group about their foray into cables and wires manufacturing. This news was met by short-term panic among shareholders, which led to impulse selling, causing stocks of Indian cable and wire manufacturers to slip by as much as over 20%. Fears of increased competition clouded the minds of many in the industry, considering that both UltraTech and Adani are giants in terms of revenue and resources as compared to even India’s cable and wire market leaders. UltraTech has announced a CapEx of about Rs. 1,800 crore to set up a greenfield manufacturing plant in Jhagadia, Gujarat, which is expected to start production in December 2026. However, exact amount of investment by Adani for its entry into cable and wire manufacturing is not clear.
Many market experts, however, consider that there is little need to panic with UltraTech and Adani’s entry in the cables and wires industry, since they will likely start with producing flexible cables, single-core cables and house wires. Production of more complex and specialised types of cables may be subject to product and plant approvals which can typically range from 6-12 months and could be longer for new entrants..
Key Expansion Plans of Major Indian Cable & Wire Players
Polycab India Launches Project Spring
Polycab has launched its new growth strategy, branded as Project Spring. This 5-year plan of the company (FY26-FY30) entails a massive CapEx outlay. Polycab India will be investing Rs. 1,200 crore to Rs. 1,600 crore annually for the next 5 years. This amounts to a total CapEx of Rs. 6,000 crore to Rs. 8,000 crore till FY30.
Through Project Spring, Polycab targets 1.5 times market growth in its wires and cables segment, and 1.5-2 times market growth in its FMEG segment. Moreover, the company expects to increase the share of exports in its total revenue to 10% from the current 6%. Apart from this, Polycab seeks to increase its profitability with this investment. The company plans to maintain its wire and cable segment EBITDA margin at 11-13% and improve its FMEG segment to 8-10% EBITDA margin with Project Spring.
Talking about Project Spring, Mr. Inder T Jaisinghani, Polycab’s CMD, said, “With supportive industry trends, increasing demand, and the clear roadmap laid out in our next five-year plan, Project Spring, we are confident and well-positioned to continue growing in a sustainable and market-leading way”.
Havells to Invest Rs. 2,000 Crore in Next 2 Years
While speaking about the company’s CapEx plans, Mr. Anil Rai Gupta, CMD of Havells India, shared, “[For] next couple of years we have estimated that over – in the next 2 years, there will be a total of about INR 2,000 crores capex”.
Some of the major ongoing investments by the company include expansion of the company’s cables plant in Alwar, Rajasthan. The company’s total investment in this plant is planned to be Rs. 715 crore, of which Rs. 340 crore CapEx had been approved by the company only recently in May 2025. After expansion of its Alwar plant, the company’s cable manufacturing capacity at the plant will be 41.45 lakh Km. Apart from this, Havells is also in process to expand its cable manufacturing plant in Tumakuru, Karnataka with Rs. 450 crore investment. This investment specifically targets higher-sized cables. Both these expansions are expected to be completed by September 2026.
Apart from cables segment, the company will be investing about Rs. 800 crore to develop Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority’s (YEIDA) Electronics Manufacturing Cluster (EMC) in Greater Noida. Havells will be setting up an FMEG manufacturing unit in this cluster, phase 1 of which is expected to be operational by September 2026. Additionally, the company is developing a Rs. 480 crore refrigerator manufacturing unit in Giloth, Rajasthan, which is expected to be commissioned in Q2 of FY27.
Apar Industries Plans Rs. 1,300 Cr. CapEx for Next 4-5 Quarters
Apar Industries will be investing a total of about Rs. 1,300 crore over the next 4-5 quarters, or the next 12-15 months. Though this investment has been announced across all its business verticals, the bulk of it will go towards the company’s cables business. About Rs. 800 crore of this CapEx will be utilised to set up a new cables manufacturing plant. As per Mr. Kushal Desai, CEO of Apar Industries, the company expects that after this investment, their cables vertical will be capable of generating about Rs. 10,000 crore of revenue. During FY25, the company had generated Rs. 4,994.70 crore as revenue from its cables segment.
The remaining amount will be invested in Apar’s Conductors, and Specialty Oils & Lubricants businesses respectively.
Apart from this CapEx, the company is also expanding its cable manufacturing capacity at its plant in Khatalwada. Expansion at Khatalwada is being done with an investment of Rs. 600-700 crore, and is expected to be complete in FY26.
RR Kabel Expanding Wire & Cable Manufacturing
RR Kabel is in the process of expanding its wire and cable manufacturing capacity. The company is investing Rs. 1,050 crore at its Waghodia plant to increase its cable production by 54%, or 36,000 Metric Tonne (MT). This expansion is expected to be completed by March 2028.
Apart from this, the company is ramping up wire production at its Silvassa plant. Phase 1 of this expansion will be complete by March 2026, and will add 12,000 MT of annual production capacity, whereas Phase 2 is slated to be completed by December 2026, which will add another 6,000 MT of wire manufacturing capacity at Silvassa.
This capacity addition at Waghodia and Silvassa is a part of RR Kabel’s growth strategy for the next three years (for FY26-FY28), which has been dubbed as Project RRise. Under project RRise, in FY26, the company will invest a total of Rs. 1,200 crore at Waghodia and Silvassa (taken together). Through this expansion, it targets to increase its total wire and cable production capacity by 1.7 times. Moreover, through Project RRise, the company is targeting to grow its wire and cable segment revenue with a CAGR of 18% over the next 3 fiscals.
Notably, RR Kabel has not specified the exact type of cables and wires for which it is expanding production capacity at Waghodia and Silvassa. The company has also not disclosed this capacity addition in terms of cable and wire length.
Mr. Rajesh Jain, RR Kabel’s CFO, had shared during the company’s FY25 earnings call, “…our strategy is to grow our domestic Wires & Cables business to 1.6x by leveraging the resurgence in real estate, increasing demand from the data center, renewables and industrial capex. We aim to scale our cable business while maintaining a high-quality, value-focused portfolio”.
KEI Industries’ Sanand Project to be Complete in FY26
KEI Industries is in the process of developing a greenfield manufacturing plant in Sanand, Gujarat for LT, HT and EHV cables, which is expected to be completed by the end of FY26. Apart from this, the company will also manufacture High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) cables at this upcoming facility. During FY26, KEI plans to invest Rs. 1,300 crore in developing this plant. During FY25, KEI invested Rs. 384 crore in this greenfield project.
KEI Industries will begin production of LT and HT cables at Sanand (Phase 1 of Sanand plant) by September 2025. EHV cable manufacturing at Sanand plant (Phase 2 of Sanand plant) is set to begin by Q1 of FY27. Once EHV cable production at Sanand begins, KEI anticipates to cater to domestic and international EHV cable demand.
KEI Industries’ CMD, Mr. Anil Gupta had shared during the company’s FY25 earnings call, “After completing the Sanand project and with the continued strong demand in domestic and overseas markets, we are hopeful to grow by 19% to 20% in next two to three years”. KEI’s management also mentioned that once fully commissioned, the Sanand plant is anticipated to increase annual sales of the company by about Rs. 5,500 crore to Rs. 6,000 crore.
Once the company’s Sanand plant is commissioned, KEI Industries plans to invest an yearly sum of about Rs. 700 crore to 800 crore annually as CapEx out of its internal accruals. This investment will be directed towards LV and MV cables.
Finolex Cables to Expand Optical Fibre Capacity to 6 Million fKm
Finolex Cables is currently conducting trials at its preform facility in Urse, Pune. During the company’s FY25 earnings call, Mr. Mahesh Viswanathan, the company’s CFO, had shared that this facility is complete, and that commercial production of preforms will commence soon. Thereafter, the company will expand optical fibre production, for which machinery is expected to arrive in December 2025. Post commissioning of this machinery, Finolex Cables’ optical fibre production will be increased to 6 million fibre Km (fKm) from the current 4 million fKm.
HFCL to Augment IBR Cable Manufacturing Capacity
Recently HFCL announced its plans to increase its Intermittent Bonded Ribbon (IBR) production capacity at its Hyderabad and Goa plants with an investment of Rs. 125.55 crore. IBR cables are a type of lightweight Optical Fibre Cable which offer better flexibility and splicing, and are suited for high density data centre deployment. Through this expansion, HFCL is set to increase its IBR cable production to 19.01 million fibre Km (fKm) by June 2026 from the current 1.73 million fKm. This represents an increase by 10x in the company’s annual IBR cable manufacturing.
Through this expansion, HFCL intends to increase its presence in European and North American markets, which are seeing an uptick in OFC demand on account of 5G and Fibre-To-The-Home (FTTH) projects.
Indian Cable and Wire Industry Poised to Grow at 15-16% in FY26
A March 2025 report by Crisil Ratings projects a growth of about 15-16% for the Indian cable and wire industry. The report went on to attribute this growth to investments in sectors such as power Transmission and Distribution (T&D), railways, and real estate. As already mentioned, major industry players have announced substantial CapEx for the near-future. Shounak Chakravarty, Director, Crisil Ratings, said “…Indian [cable & wire] players are expected to boost installed capacities by about 40% incurring capex of Rs 8,000-8,500 crore 2025-2026 – a 70% step-up over capex incurred between fiscals 2022 and 2024”.
Mr. Mohit Makhija, Senior Director, Crisil Ratings, added that India’s cumulative investment in the railways, power, and real estate sectors is expected to rise by 25% during FY26 to about Rs. 9 lakh crore, which in turn will offer more growth opportunities for the cable and wire industry.