India to become a global base for metal halide lamps

Even though the domestic market for metal halide lamps is miniscule in size, India is all set to become a major manufacturer and exporter of the product. The US-based $240 million Advanced Lighting Technologies Inc., has decided to source a major portion of its global market needs from its Indian joint venture outfit, Asian Lighting Resources (India) Ltd, Chennai.

Says Wayne Hellman, chairman & CEO of the US company, "The Indian plant is the largest of its kind in the entire Asia Pacific rim. We intend to ramp up its capacity on a big scale." Advanced Lighting Technologies is the only one of its kind in the world to manufacture and sell the entire metal halide lamp systems - bulbs, components/fixtures. Earning 70 per cent of its revenues from selling metal halide lamps and the balance from selling other supportive systems, the company's state-of-the-art product designs represent 90 per cent of the metal halide lamp types currently produced in the world.

"We are suppliers as well as competitors for other metal halide lamp manufacturers," says Hellman. The company supplies metal halide lamps and supportive systems to GE Lighting, a division of General Electric Company. The latter has recently upped its stakes to 20 per cent in the equity-based Advanced Lighting Technologies.

According to Hellman, "Of the $54 billion lighting market, metal halide lamps constitute six per cent. It is the fastest growing product segment now with a growth rate of 11 per cent per annum. In Europe, high pressure sodium lamps are being replaced with metal halide lamps." Apart from lighting up industries and roadways, these lamps are now being fitted in automobile headlamps, he adds.

Agrees Dilip Kumbhat, chairman, Indian Society of Lighting Engineers, "After traditional bulbs and fluorescent lamps, the new generation lamps such as energy saving compact fluorescent lamps, halogen lamps and metal halide lamps came into being." The metal halide lamp consists of a quartz discharge tube, containing high pressure mercury and a mixture of metal halides, housed in a hard glass envelope.

Agreeing that the initial cost of a metal halide bulb is quite high compared to other traditional bulbs that lights the industries, stadiums, roadways, Hellman says his bulbs pays back its users more than its initial cost in the form of energy savings, longer bulb life, bright dispersal of light. "One metal halide lamp is equivalent to five GLS bulbs and three fluorescent lamps. The latest in the metal halide lamps family is the uniform pulse start bulbs, our innovation." According to him, this bulb has a burning life of 20,000 hours and can be used for all kinds of applications including residential purposes. "Last December, we sold half-a-million dollar worth of these bulbs."

He adds that the Indian subsidiary supplies 50 per cent of its output to the central US markets, 25 per cent to the UK, 15 per cent to Australia and the rest to the Asian Pacific rim.

The Rs 14 crore equity based Asian Lighting Resources is an 89:11 joint venture between Advanced Lighting Technologies and Tamil Nadu Industrial Corporation Ltd. (Tidco). The four lakh bulbs per annum capacity (single shift) metal halide lamp project set up inside Madras Export Processing Zone (MEPZ) at an outlay of Rs 32 crore, commenced commercial production last January.

"For the first three months of operations, we clocked a turnover of Rs.2.5 crore," recalls AJ Joseph Enok, CEO of the Indian outfit. With the American company sourcing the entire production for its global markets, the Indian company recorded a turnover of Rs 12 crore by December 1999 and hopes to close this fiscal with a turnover of Rs 16 crore.

"With global demand for metal halide lamps perking up, we are now operating our plant in two shifts, thereby doubling our output. In addition, we are in the processing of hiking our capacity to 1.5 million units now and later plan to add another half a million," says Enok.

Discussing the Rs 20 crore expansion project, Enok says that Advanced Lighting Technologies is funding the entire project through supply of equipment and interest free loan. As a result, the equity base of the company will go up by another Rs 8.6 crore.

After the expansion, Advanced Lighting Technologies' stakes in the Chennai company would go up to 93 per cent. "In principle, clearances have been obtained form Tidco, the other joint venture partner," Enok says. With the permission to sell 25 per cent of its output in the domestic tariff area, Asian Lighting Resources is now seriously looking at the local market. Already, the company has bagged orders from the Railways and the Chennai Corporation.

Though metal halide lamps need special components like ballasts to obtain the full benefits, it can also be retrofitted. Interestingly, the Railways and the Chennai Corporation have gone for precisely that.

Currently, metal halide lamps constitute just one per cent of the total lighting market. Companies like Philips, Osram are selling imported lamps here. "As our subsidiary will be making it here, the price will be more attractive for industries, railways and others to go for our product," hopes Hellman. Towards that, the Chennai company has started to localisation of components and is also thinking of making other fixtures that are currently imported