Aditya Birla’s UltraVolt jolts wires and cables stocks; Polycab, KEI, Havells India, Finolex Cables fall up to 8%
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Shares of wires and cables companies witnessed broad-based selling on Friday after the Aditya Birla Group launched its wires and cables business, UltraVolt, intensifying competition concerns in the sector.
KEI Industries fell as much as 8.25% on the BSE to ₹4,855.75, while Polycab India declined by 5.85% to ₹8,308.55. Finolex Cables dropped as much as 4.93% to ₹1,210.40, while Havells India slipped by 3.53% to ₹1,157.60.
KEI Industries opened at ₹5,069.95, down 4.21% from its previous close of ₹5,292.50, while Polycab opened at ₹8,549.90, a decline of 3.12% from its previous close of ₹8,825.
Finolex Cables opened at ₹1,238.80, down 2.70% from its previous close of ₹1,273.15. Havells India opened at ₹1,177, down 1.92% from ₹1,200.
The selling comes a day after the Aditya Birla Group announced the launch of UltraVolt, housed under UltraTech Cement, with an investment of ₹1,800 crore. The group said the business will be the second-largest player in the wires segment by capacity at launch and aims to become one of India's top two wires and cables players within five years.
UltraVolt starts production with 10.98 lakh km capacity
UltraTech has commenced commercial production at its greenfield facility at Jhagadia in Gujarat's Bharuch district. The facility has an installed capacity of 10.98 lakh km of house wires and light-duty cables, according to the company.
UltraVolt plans to launch at pan-India scale, with an initial presence across more than 500 districts and 6,000 pin codes. It aims to reach more than 1 lakh retailers and activate availability through more than 5,000 UltraTech Building Solutions outlets, supported by more than 20 warehouses.
The company will initially offer home wires, flexible wires and cables for residential, commercial, industrial and infrastructure applications, with plans to expand into electrical accessories over time.
UltraVolt has also onboarded more than 1,600 electricians ahead of the launch and plans to train more than 40,000 electricians over the coming year under the Skill India programme in partnership with the Electronics Sector Skills Council of India.
W&C market seen growing rapidly
The entry comes as India's wires and cables industry is already witnessing strong demand from housing, infrastructure, power transmission and distribution, renewable energy and data centres.
A report by Equirus estimates India's wires and cables market at around ₹1.07 lakh crore in FY26 and projects it to reach around ₹1.75 lakh crore by FY30, implying an industry growth rate of roughly 13% annually, excluding exports.
The report estimates cumulative incremental domestic demand at around ₹67,700 crore between FY27 and FY30, suggesting that the expanding market could absorb a significant part of the new capacity being added by players.
The Aditya Birla Group has identified urbanisation, electrification and digitisation as key structural drivers for the sector. Kumar Mangalam Birla has said India could add more than 100 million homes over the next decade, while rising investments in energy infrastructure and data centres are expected to create additional demand for wires and cables.