Change was the only constant factor in the structured cabling sector. During FY 2005-06, the market expanded immensely and the competition got tougher. The industry registered a significant growth of 38% to reach a market value of Rs 574 crore-quite a leap from the Rs 416 crore of the last fiscal. Looking at this buoyancy, it's not surprising that the players lapped up the potential scope of the market with great zeal and innovation.

Mature standards like Cat 6 and Cat 5E account for the majority of installations. This left the field open for all to take on the next challenge of the communication boom across all industry verticals, namely denser patching solutions for increasingly intelligent customers.

Cat 6 took the cakewalk notching approximately 65% of the market share while Cat 5E, still in demand, accounted for at least 32%. Even as the Cat  6A standard was being ratified, deployment of 10G-over-UTP was on the rise. This contributed 3% to the overall coffers of the industry.

Products: Need for Speed
The demand for bandwidth has grown dramatically during the year, resulting in an increased need for higher-speed switches and routers. Projections over the next three years show an increase in the market share for both the Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gigabit Ethernet switches. Undoubtedly then, the Indian enterprises are buckling up to ride the wave of communication boom.

This explains why despite wireless being the talk of the town, wiring India Inc continued to remain a profitable venture for the Systimaxes, Krones and Tycos. The impressive performance of FY 2005-06 was a testament of an impressive gamut of verticals. These have contributed significantly to the growth of the structured cabling industry.

New Market: Manufacturing
IT/BPO, BFSI, telecom, education and health verticals were the usual key growth drivers. While the major chunk of business still came from BPOs, it was the manufacturing industry that promised new excitement to the structured cabling players. Further, new areas of business were widening with the opening up of FDI in retail and real-estate.

The upsurge in the demand can also be assessed from the fact that the ratio of demand to supply has been very high. On one hand, the industry has been overwhelmed by the heavy demand of cabling from the customers. On the other, the supply of copper was falling short. Thus, the price of copper, which has been increasing worldwide, doubled in the first quarter of 2006. Despite this, the competition has remained healthy and the industry is optimistic in maintaining high grounds.

Hot: Intelligent Cabling, Data Centers
The AMP Netconnect from Tyco Electronics topped the honors list registering a growth of 41%. In FY 2005-06, it clocked a revenue of Rs 164 crore with nearly 30% market share. The upswing could be attributed to sizeable business deals for intelligent cabling systems and a high density of data center projects. Last year's numero uno, Systimax, slipped to #2 as it grew only by 30% to touch Rs 156 crore. D-Link completes the trio at the top as it sustained its previous fiscal growth of 35.6% to close at Rs 80 crore.

Two players worth watching are ADC Krone and Molex at positions 4 and 5 respectively. ADC Krone registered a revenue of Rs 35 crore at a healthy growth rate of 45.8%, compared to 20% of the last fiscal. Molex was close on heel with revenue of Rs 34 crore, and recorded the highest growth rate among the top ten players at almost 59.5%. It attributed this growth to some prestigious wins in the telecom and IT sectors. Both Molex and ADC Krone enjoyed equal market share of 6% and have aggressive plans in the current fiscal.

Panduit, Belden, TVSICS, Dax and Finolex make up the rest of the Top 10 list. TVSICS significantly improved its y-o-y growth and was inching ever closer to Belden. The latter currently enjoys a 3.3% market share compared to 2.8% of TVSICS. Others like Siemon, BNA Technology, Legrand and R&M also peddled their wares during the year.

High-Volume Business
The buoyancy in the market was evident from the volume of business handled by the players. Tyco received high-order deals from BPOs and BFSI companies. It notched the biggest deal from GE Capital for wiring four of its data centers. Other significant orders came from Infosys, HSBC, and Cognizant. It has more than 30 projects on intelligent cabling system alone.

Systimax did close to 10 lakh connects last year.  Its top installations were for BPO service providers and multinational companies. It implemented its first 10GBase-T solution at Vimta Labs, Hyderabad, also its first installation in the APAC region.

D-Link did most of its installation on Cat 6. It had a diverse  client portfolio including education and manufacturing verticals. Key projects included wiring up NIT Suratkal, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Hinduja TMT, Eastern Naval Command and Vizag Steel plant. D-Link used both copper and fiber.

ADC Krone was the first to launch 10G UTP cabling solution in India two years ago. It found a fast market acceptance with eight installations in the first year itself. Its key projects included installation for i2 Technologies and TCS, mainly for their data centres. Key accounts included networking for Vikas Soudha, Bangalore, IDBI, Mumbai, Ventura, Pune, and IGSL Mumbai.

Molex has emerged as the dark horse with some prestigious orders, top being the Rs 10-crore order from Reliance Infocomm. Molex also has ongoing projects with Reliance industries including connectivity in its Jamnagar facility. But its biggest bite came from the order to network HCL's five offices. At Rs 4.5 crore, Molex also wired up the 750 branches of the income tax department.

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