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Japan’s Proterial will invest $76.9 million (12 billion yen) to build its first production facility in India, aiming to meet rising demand for transformers in the world’s third-largest electricity market.

The new plant will manufacture iron-based amorphous metal materials used in energy-efficient transformers. It will be located in the Sri City industrial park in Andhra Pradesh and operated through a joint venture in which Proterial will hold a 74% stake, with the remaining 26% owned by a local transformer manufacturer. The facility is expected to employ around 200 people and begin operations in October.

Initial production capacity will be about 30,000 metric tons per year. The company said the Indian plant will increase its global amorphous metal output by roughly 50%, making India its third production base after Japan and the United States. Proterial is targeting $100 million in sales by 2030 from the new facility.

Amorphous metal is positioned as an alternative to grain-oriented electrical steel, a standard transformer material. According to the company, the material can reduce standby electricity loss in transformers to one-third that of comparable grain-oriented electrical steel products.

With electricity demand expanding across industrial and technology sectors, the investment reflects expectations of sustained growth in India’s power infrastructure.

Source: asia.nikkei.com