Sterling & Wilson Sees No Impact Of Fresh Solar Panel Supply Curbs As Local Firms Meet Demand
India has reimposed an approved list of manufacturers from whom companies can buy panels.
Sterling & Wilson Renewables Energy Ltd. sees no impact from the reimposition of an approved list of models and manufacturers from April 1.
The domestic manufacturing capacity has grown substantially and will be competitive enough to meet Indian demand, said Amit Jain, global chief executive officer of the company.
SWRE is a pure-play engineering, procurement and construction company that participates in government projects. With ALMM specifications, imports will be restricted, Jain told NDTV Profit.
ALMM was stayed for one year from April 1, 2023, to March 31, 2024.
The Indian government has now approved Indian manufacturers, from whom companies are supposed to buy panels. This has been done to compete with Chinese suppliers, who cater to 85% of the demand for panels in India.
However, companies that placed orders for panels until March 31, 2024 or have projects under construction will not be forced to take panels only from the approved list of manufacturers under ALMM.
All government projects have to have ALMM vendor-supplied panels. Only captive and group captive projects for self-use are exempt from ALMM.
Domestic Vs. International Orders
The renewable EPC player has an unexecuted order book of close to Rs 8,800 crore at present. Of this, domestic orders constitute roughly 90% of the total.
The pace of growth in the country gives strong visibility to orders in the coming quarters.
"Our focus will be on high-margin, good-value domestic projects. Around 65-70% of orders will come from domestic projects. But we will take good-margin projects from selective markets internationally as well," Jain said.
The company operates in the Middle East, Africa and Australia and has bagged its first international order in three years from Spain.
"Our margins from execution of domestic orders are around 11–12%, and we will ensure we take similar margin orders in the international markets," Jain said.
