The wire and cable industry in India: size, margins and who wins
SRF Capital Studio Research DeskFunding Intelligence, SRF Capital StudioWho signs the order matters more to a cable maker's margin than the copper inside the cable, and two conglomerates are about to test that.
Summary
- Two Crisil studies size the Indian wire and cable industry at ₹1.1 to 1.4 lakh crore for FY25, and organised makers earned about ₹1 lakh crore in FY26.
- Our view is that margin follows the buyer: branded retail wire and certified project cable pay well, while tendered standard cable and aluminium conductor pay little.
- With UltraTech producing since September 2026 and Adani's venture building, standard wire will get crowded, so mid-sized makers should move to certified, specialty and export lines.
What this report covers and who it is for
Every flat, factory, metro line, solar park and data centre in India is wired with cable. This report is about the Indian companies that make it: how large the market is, how its buyers decide, and where the profit sits.
It is written for two readers. One owns or runs a cable business with ₹20 crore to ₹500 crore of sales and wants to know which moves pay. The other is an investor weighing the listed leaders against unlisted mid-sized makers.
All figures are as of October 2026. Published estimates of this industry disagree by tens of thousands of crore, so we name each source and say what it counts.
How big is India's wire and cable industry?
There is no single answer, because the published counts measure different things. Crisil Intelligence, in a study Polycab publishes, puts the FY25 market at about ₹1,08,500 crore. About ₹89,000 crore of that was domestic consumption, and most of the rest was exports.
A second Crisil report, cited in Laser Power & Infra's filings, puts the FY25 market at ₹1,40,800 crore. It says the market was ₹78,700 crore in FY20, which works out to growth of 12.3 percent a year.
Crisil Ratings counts only organised makers, the companies that hold Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) licences and publish accounts. It put their revenue at ₹80,000 to 82,000 crore in FY25, and at about ₹1 lakh crore in its June 2026 update.
Trade press figures run higher. One widely repeated estimate puts FY24 at about ₹1.7 lakh crore, but we could not trace it to a named study, so we do not use it.
Published estimates of the size of India's wire and cable market
| Estimate | What it counts | Size | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crisil Intelligence, study published by Polycab | Whole market including exports | About ₹1,08,500 crore, of which domestic about ₹89,000 crore | FY25 |
| Crisil, report cited in Laser Power & Infra's filings | Wires and cables market | ₹1,40,800 crore, up from ₹78,700 crore in FY20 | FY25 |
| Crisil Ratings | Organised makers only | ₹80,000 to 82,000 crore | FY25 |
| Crisil Ratings | Organised makers only | About ₹1,00,000 crore | FY26 |
| Trade press, no study named | Not stated | About ₹1,70,000 crore | FY24 |
Our reading is that the whole industry earned between ₹1.1 lakh crore and ₹1.4 lakh crore in FY25. The organised part is roughly ₹1 lakh crore today, whichever study you start from.
How much of the market is organised is also disputed. Crisil Ratings says organised makers earn about two-thirds of industry revenue. A September 2024 Crisil study, cited by Paramount Communications, puts it nearer three-quarters. The rest belongs to small, mostly unbranded local units.
The organised part is roughly ₹1 lakh crore today, whichever study you start from.
Growth has been strong on every count. Crisil Ratings says volumes grew more than 15 percent a year over the five years to FY26, and over 20 percent in FY26 alone. It expects revenue to rise 28 to 30 percent in FY27, mostly because higher copper and aluminium prices are passed on.
Exports are the fastest-growing slice. Motilal Oswal counts cable and wire exports rising from ₹8,300 crore in FY20 to ₹19,800 crore in FY25, about 19 percent a year. The Crisil report in Laser Power & Infra's filings puts FY25 exports lower, at about ₹14,500 crore.
The direction is the same in both. In the first half of FY26, Motilal Oswal recorded exports to Germany up 65 percent, to the US up 63 percent and to the UAE up 49 percent. Exports to Saudi Arabia fell 58 percent.
Which segments make up the cable market?
Calling this one industry hides how different its parts are. A coil of house wire sold over a shop counter and a 220 kV high-voltage cable laid under a city share little beyond copper and plastic.
Crisil Ratings says housing wires and power cables together make up about half of industry revenue. The rest is spread across many product families, each with its own buyer and its own reason to grow.
The main product families in Indian wires and cables, and who buys them
| Product family | Main buyer | How it is sold | What drives demand |
|---|---|---|---|
| House and building wire | Electricians, contractors, homeowners | Dealers and retail shops, on brand | Housing, renovation, commercial buildings |
| Low-tension power and armoured cable | EPC contractors, utilities, factories | Tenders and approved vendor lists | Power distribution, industry, real estate |
| Medium, high and extra-high voltage cable | Transmission utilities, metros, large plants | Pre-qualified tenders | Grid expansion, renewable power evacuation, urban transit |
| Solar DC cable | Solar EPC firms, rooftop installers | Projects and installer channel | Solar capacity additions |
| Submersible and farm cable | Pump makers, rural dealers | Supply to pump makers and dealers | Irrigation and solar pumps |
| Aluminium conductors | Power distribution companies | Government tenders | Distribution upgrades, rural lines |
| Fire-safe and specialty cable | Data centres, metros, hospitals, tall buildings | Named in consultants' specifications | Fire codes, data centre build-out |
| Control, instrumentation and communication cable | Process plants, telecom operators | Projects and tenders | Industrial capex, telecom networks |
| Export cable | Overseas utilities and EPC firms | Certified supply to foreign buyers | Grid and building spend in the Gulf, Europe and the US |
In our experience, growth and margin rarely sit in the same row. Aluminium conductors and tendered power cable grow with public spending, but they go to the lowest bid. Retail house wire grows more steadily and earns a brand premium.
Certified high-voltage and fire-safe cable earn more for a plainer reason: few makers are approved to supply them. That scarcity, not the product itself, is what the buyer pays for.
Who buys cables, and how does each buyer decide?
Three kinds of buyer account for nearly all domestic demand. Each decides in a different way and rewards a different strength in the seller.
- Retail buyers trust the electrician. A homeowner rarely picks a brand of house wire. The electrician does, and the shop stocks what electricians ask for. That is why the leaders run training and loyalty schemes for electricians, and why a new brand finds retail slow to win.
- Project buyers follow the specification. An EPC contractor handles engineering, procurement and construction for a project. A consultant writes the cable specification at the design stage, and the contractor buys from an approved vendor list. Getting onto those lists takes years of supply history, and price competition starts only among the approved names.
- Government buyers follow the tender. Utilities and public agencies publish specifications and ask for type-test certificates, the laboratory reports that prove a cable design meets its standard. They usually award to the lowest qualified bid, and payment can be slow.
One number explains project buyers' behaviour. Crisil Ratings notes that cables and wires are usually less than 5 percent of a project's total cost. A contractor will not risk a delay or a failed inspection to save a small share of that.
A maker that wins in retail has built dealers and a brand. One that wins project and government work has built approvals and a delivery record. Few mid-sized companies have both, and choosing which to build first is their biggest strategic decision.
How does a cable maker earn its margin?
Making cable is a short process. Copper or aluminium rod is drawn into wire, stranded, insulated with PVC or cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE), sheathed and, for heavier cable, armoured with steel. The machines are not exotic, which is one reason the industry has so many makers.
Raw material is most of the cost. Crisil Ratings puts raw materials at about 70 percent of sales, with copper and aluminium about 70 percent of that. So roughly half of every rupee of sales is metal, before labour, power or plastic.
What is left pays for conversion, distribution, marketing, testing and the return on capital. Crisil Ratings put the organised industry's operating margin at 10 to 11 percent in March 2025. The listed leaders sit around or above that band, and the spread between them is instructive. In the table, is operating profit before depreciation, and EBIT is operating profit after it.
Revenue and margins of five listed wire and cable leaders, FY26
| Company | FY26 revenue | Margin reported | What the business leans on |
|---|---|---|---|
| Polycab India | ₹28,884 crore, of which wires and cables ₹25,179 crore | EBITDA 13.9%, whole company | Dealer distribution; retail and institutional cable |
| KEI Industries | About ₹11,748 crore | EBITDA about 11.8% (₹1,387 crore) | Institutional and high-voltage cable; exports |
| Havells India, cables and wires segment | ₹8,677 crore | Segment EBIT 13.1% | Consumer brand; retail wire and power cable |
| RR Kabel | About ₹9,722 crore, of which wires and cables ₹8,764 crore | EBITDA 8.1%, whole company; cable segment profit about 9% | House wire brand; exports |
| Finolex Cables | About ₹6,321 crore, of which electrical cables about ₹5,490 crore | Electrical segment EBIT about 10% | Retail wire; own copper rod plant |
Polycab and Havells earn the most on these numbers, and both run large dealer businesses with strong retail brands. RR Kabel's company margin is pulled down by its consumer electricals arm, which was still working toward . Its cable segment earned about ₹776 crore on ₹8,764 crore of sales.
The table supports a rule we use in diligence on cable makers. Margin follows the buyer and the brand, not the tonnage of copper.
Margin follows the buyer and the brand, not the tonnage of copper.
Why does copper swing a cable maker's results?
Because metal is about half of sales, copper moves revenue and reported margins every quarter. Crisil Ratings says copper and aluminium prices rose 22 to 27 percent over FY26. It expects selling prices to rise 18 to 20 percent in FY27 as makers pass that on.
Trade reports of London Metal Exchange (LME) prices show copper setting new records during 2026. Domestic copper prices track the LME, so every Indian maker feels its moves.
An illustration shows why the margin percentage misleads. Take a cable that sells for ₹100, with ₹50 of copper, ₹38 of other cost and ₹12 of margin. Copper rises 20 percent, and the maker passes on exactly the extra ₹10.
The price is now ₹110 and the margin is still ₹12. But the margin now reads 10.9 percent instead of 12, and a screen that ranks companies by margin will mark the business down. Nothing about the business has got worse.
The reverse happens when copper falls. Dealers hold back orders and wait for cheaper stock, so revenue can dip for a quarter or two even while builders and contractors keep buying at the same pace.
Passing costs on is real but slow. Finolex Cables raised prices about 14 times during FY26, for an effective increase of roughly a quarter on many electrical lines, according to coverage of its results. Between each revision, the maker carries the gap.
What good copper management looks like
- Every large order carries a price clause. Project contracts should include a copper escalation clause, which resets the price when the metal moves past an agreed band.
- Fixed-price sales are hedged on the day they are signed. When a contract fixes the selling price, as many export orders do, the copper for it should be bought or hedged at once. MCX, India's commodity exchange, trades copper contracts for this.
- Metal inventory is kept short. Every week of copper in stock is a week of price exposure, and a short cycle limits the damage from a sudden fall.
- Retail price lists change often in fast markets. Finolex's fourteen revisions in one year show what that takes in practice.
When a cable company says it simply passes copper through, ask how, and how fast. The weeks between a rise in copper and a rise in the price list are where unhedged makers lose money.
What return on capital does a healthy cable maker earn?
Because copper distorts margins, return on capital employed (ROCE) is the better test of a cable business. It asks how much operating profit the company makes on all the money tied up in plant, stock and receivables.
The organised leaders pass it well. In March 2025, Crisil Ratings expected organised players' ROCE to stay above 20 percent, with assets turning over more than four times a year. It put debt at 0.7 to 0.8 times EBITDA for FY25 and FY26.
Its June 2026 update expects debt to stay at 0.5 to 0.6 times EBITDA, with interest covered 16 to 17 times. Polycab ended FY26 with net cash of ₹4,190 crore. Balance sheets like these let the leaders fund new capacity from their own cash.
Working capital is where mid-sized makers fail this test. Copper has to be bought before cable can be sold, dealers and contractors pay later, and government buyers can take months.
An illustration: a maker carrying 60 days of net working capital needs about ₹33 crore at ₹200 crore of sales. At ₹600 crore of sales it needs about ₹99 crore.
Growth that triples sales triples that need. Unless bank limits are reset ahead of it, the company has to slow down just as demand opens up. Our debt and blended capital work sizes those limits before the strain arrives.
Where do cable companies stall as they grow?
Indian cable makers range from family units with a few crore of sales to Polycab. In our reading, they pass through four rough stages, and the move from one stage to the next is where most of them stop.
Four stages of an Indian cable company, as a working framework
| Stage | Typical revenue | What it looks like | What holds it back |
|---|---|---|---|
| Founder-run | ₹20 to 150 crore | One or two product lines, local dealers, every decision with the founder | No management layer; thin working capital |
| Organised regional | ₹150 to 1,000 crore | Professional sales team, several product lines, dealers in a few states | Funding growth; first large project customers; capacity decisions |
| Scaled national | ₹1,000 to 8,000 crore | Listed or close to it, national reach, high-voltage or export credentials | Holding margin against new entrants; building capacity on time |
| Market leader | Above ₹8,000 crore | Full voltage range, national brand, exports to many countries | Conglomerate competition; succession |
The first stall: when the founder is the bottleneck
The most common ceiling comes somewhere between ₹50 crore and ₹100 crore of sales. Demand has not stopped. The business has outgrown a model in which every price, hire and dealer decision passes through one person.
Getting past it takes three moves at once. Hire a sales head and a finance lead before the revenue seems to justify them. Set up bank limits and collection discipline before growth strains them. Add a first specialty product, because a maker of plain house wire alone will be squeezed by the leaders and the entrants.
The hire pays for itself on simple arithmetic. As an illustration, a sales head costing ₹50 lakh a year who adds ₹50 crore of sales at an 8 percent EBITDA margin brings in ₹4 crore. That is eight times the salary.
A founder at this stage rarely knows which products and dealers actually make money. Our FP&A work with manufacturers starts with margin by product and by customer, because every later decision depends on it.
The second stall: the capacity decision
The second ceiling sits around ₹300 crore to ₹600 crore. A company there usually has its first export certificate and a few specialty lines, and faces a large investment in capacity for project-grade cable.
Those that invest, and build on time, shift their mix toward better-paid products. Those that wait often stay the same size for years, too small to interest growth investors and too stable to attract a buyer at a discount. The first stall is about people; the second is about capital and nerve.
Who leads the Indian cable industry, tier by tier?
The organised market is fragmented for its size. On Crisil Intelligence's FY25 count, Polycab, the largest maker, held about 17.4 percent of the whole market and 19.8 percent of domestic consumption.
The five largest listed makers together earned about 43 percent of the market, by our arithmetic from the same Crisil data. Concentration is rising: Polycab says its domestic market share rose by about 3 to 4 percent during FY26.
Wire and cable revenue of India's leading listed makers, FY25
| Tier | Company | Wires and cables revenue, FY25 |
|---|---|---|
| Leaders | Polycab India | ₹18,888 crore |
| Leaders | KEI Industries | ₹8,856 crore |
| Leaders | Havells India | ₹7,184 crore |
| Leaders | RR Kabel | ₹6,689 crore |
| Leaders | Finolex Cables | ₹5,007 crore |
| Next tier | Apar Industries | ₹4,644 crore |
| Next tier | Universal Cables | ₹2,408 crore |
| Next tier | V-Guard Industries (electricals segment) | ₹2,170 crore |
| Next tier | Paramount Communications | ₹1,576 crore |
| Next tier | Dynamic Cables | ₹925 crore |
| Next tier | Birla Cable | ₹662 crore |
Below these sit regional organised makers with ₹100 crore to ₹500 crore of sales and a few BIS licences each. Below them is a long tail of unorganised units, which together hold between a quarter and a third of the market on Crisil's two counts.
How the leaders were built
The five leaders reached the top by different routes. The routes matter because some can be copied by a mid-sized maker and some cannot.
- Polycab built distribution first. It sells through more than 3,900 authorised dealers and 190,000 retail outlets, from 26 factories. In our reading, reach came first and consumer advertising later, and a mid-sized maker can copy that one region at a time.
- KEI built project credentials. It grew by supplying institutional and high-voltage projects, where each delivered order strengthens the next bid. Its investor presentation for the first half of FY26 showed export revenue more than doubling, to ₹757 crore from ₹346 crore.
- RR Kabel built on house wire and exports. PL Capital reports its exports grew about 33 percent in FY26, with the Middle East taking about 40 percent of them. That gives it a second market and also a concentration risk.
- Finolex built control over its metal. It runs its own copper rod plant, whose output mostly feeds its own cable lines. That kind of backward integration needs heavy capital and is out of reach for most mid-sized makers.
- Havells built on a consumer brand. Its cables and wires segment uses the same brand and dealers as its switches, fans and lighting, and earned a 13.1 percent segment EBIT margin in FY26.
For a mid-sized maker, the routes worth copying are regional distribution, project credentials and exports. Owning metal supply is not one of them, though disciplined hedging gives part of the same protection.
What actually protects a cable business from competitors?
Cable is often called a commodity, and at the bottom of the market that is fair. Higher up, a handful of advantages hold for years, and most of them can be built by a mid-sized company that starts early.
Which advantages protect a cable maker, and which a mid-sized company can build
| Advantage | How long it lasts | Can a mid-sized maker build it? | What it protects |
|---|---|---|---|
| BIS licences across more standards, such as is 694, is 1554 and IS 7098 | Long, if maintained | Yes, one standard at a time | Access to institutional, project and government buyers |
| International certifications for export markets | Long | Yes, with a commitment of several years | Export orders and the pricing that comes with them |
| Electrician loyalty | Long, if kept up | Yes, starting in one region | Retail house wire volume and price |
| A deep dealer network in a few states | Long | Yes, region by region | Shelf space and steady orders |
| High-voltage type tests and utility vendor approvals | Very long | Yes, with capital and patience | Pre-qualified tender business with few rivals |
| Specialty products such as solar DC, fire-safe and submersible cable | Medium | Yes, and the quickest to start | Better-paid orders from buyers who compare on approval |
| Copper hedging discipline | As long as it is practised | Yes, at once | Steadier margins through metal cycles |
| Low price alone, without certification | Short | Not advisable | Nothing, once enforcement reaches the market |
IS 694 covers PVC-insulated cables up to 1,100 volts, the standard most house wire is sold under. IS 1554 and IS 7098 cover heavier PVC and XLPE power cables. Institutional and government buyers will not consider a product without the right licence.
Analysts quoted by DSIJ in September 2026 put pre-qualification for some industrial and transmission cables at two to four years. That clock is the real barrier. A new entrant can buy machines quickly, but a delivery record takes years to earn.
Our suggested order for a mid-sized maker runs from the quickest and cheapest step to the slowest and costliest. Start with specialty BIS licences, then build dealer depth in two or three states, then a first international certification, and high voltage last.
What do the conglomerate entrants, Adani and UltraTech, change?
Two conglomerates are now in the industry, and a third is often named. Crisil Ratings expects industry capacity to rise 20 to 22 percent by the end of FY27, with nearly half of the new capacity coming from new players.
UltraTech Cement, the Aditya Birla Group's cement company, began commercial production at its Jhagadia plant in Gujarat on 1 September 2026. The ₹1,800 crore plant has 10.98 lakh km of capacity and sells under the Ultravolt brand. The group says it aims to be one of the top two players within five years.
Adani Enterprises' copper company, Kutch Copper, formed Praneetha Ecocables in March 2025 as a 50:50 venture with Praneetha Ventures. Trade reports place its plant near Ahmedabad, due to start by December 2026. Capacity has not been disclosed, but the venture can draw on copper from the group's Mundra smelter.
Reliance is often named as a likely third entrant. We found no announcement of a Reliance cable business, so we treat it as market talk.
Conglomerate entrants to Indian wires and cables, October 2026
| Entrant | What is public | Likely focus | How it competes |
|---|---|---|---|
| UltraTech Cement (Ultravolt) | ₹1,800 crore plant at Jhagadia, Gujarat; 10.98 lakh km capacity; production from 1 September 2026 | House wire and light-duty cable first, with solar, communication and LT cable in the range | Plans to reach 100,000+ retailers and 5,000+ UltraTech Building Solutions outlets; aims for top two in five years |
| Adani (Praneetha Ecocables) | 50:50 venture of Kutch Copper and Praneetha Ventures, formed March 2025; plant near Ahmedabad due by December 2026 | Copper wire and cable; capacity not disclosed | Group copper from the Mundra smelter; our expectation is group project demand as an anchor |
| Reliance | No cable business announced as of October 2026 | Not known | Market talk only |
Investors took the threat seriously from the start. When the Adani venture was announced in March 2025, KEI's shares fell as much as 13 percent during the day and Polycab's almost 9 percent, Angel One reported.
Our view: the entrants will hurt most where products are standard and buyers compare price. Plain house wire and low-tension cable are exposed. High-voltage, fire-safe, submersible and export cable are far less exposed, because approvals take years to earn.
The entrants will also raise the cost of shelf space. A regional brand that relies on a few hundred dealers should expect UltraTech's building-material network to bid for the same counters.
What could go wrong for cable makers and investors?
The main risks for Indian wire and cable makers, 2026 to 2029
| Risk | How likely in the next three years | Who it hurts most | What reduces it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Copper price swings | Certain to recur | Unhedged makers with fixed-price orders | Escalation clauses, matched hedges, short inventory |
| New conglomerate capacity | Already happening | Makers of plain house wire and low-tension cable | Moving the mix to certified and specialty products |
| Overcapacity in standard products | Moderate | Makers that borrowed to add commodity capacity | Specialty and export mix; capex paced to orders |
| Working capital squeeze during fast growth | High for mid-sized makers | Companies growing faster than their bank limits | Resetting limits early; collection discipline |
| Delays in government programmes | Moderate | Makers that depend on one scheme or one utility | A mix of retail, project, government and export buyers |
| Governance and promoter problems | Hard to judge from outside | Minority investors in unlisted family firms | Direct diligence on people, related parties and controls |
| Export market shocks | Moderate | Exporters concentrated in one region | Spreading exports across regions |
Overcapacity is the risk most often understated. Crisil Ratings put the industry's planned capex at ₹8,000 to 8,500 crore across FY25 and FY26, a 70 percent step-up on the three years before.
peaked at 80 to 85 percent in FY24 and was about 75 percent in FY26, by Crisil's count. With new players adding nearly half of the next round of capacity, standard products could see price pressure if demand cools.
Export risk is newer. PL Capital reports that RR Kabel's management flagged Middle East tensions, since the region takes about 40 percent of its exports. JM Financial says KEI's exports fell about 9 percent in the fourth quarter of FY26 when Middle East shipments were deferred.
The risk least visible from outside is governance in family-run makers. Partners who cannot agree, no second line of managers, and related-party dealings that blur the numbers show up only in direct work with management. Our due diligence on cable makers spends as much time on people as on accounts.
Where is the cable industry heading over the next decade?
Demand has four engines, and each is visible in public spending plans or company data.
- Distribution upgrades are funded. The Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS) has an outlay of ₹3,03,758 crore for distribution upgrades and smart meters. Trade reports say it has been extended to March 2028.
- Renewables keep setting records. India added 55.29 GW of non-fossil capacity in FY2025-26, including 44.61 GW of solar, against 29.5 GW the year before. Each solar park needs direct-current (DC) cable inside it and power cable to carry its output away.
- Data centres want better cable. CBRE puts India's data centre capacity at about 1,700 MW at the end of 2025 and expects more than 3 GW by the end of 2028. Data centres buy fire-safe and high-current cable, among the better-paid products.
- Exports are growing fastest. On Motilal Oswal's count, exports grew about 19 percent a year from FY20 to FY25, faster than domestic sales.
Crisil Ratings counts ₹10 to 12 lakh crore of investment lined up across renewables, power, real estate and newer sectors. The Crisil report in Laser Power & Infra's filings projects the market at ₹2.35 to 2.55 lakh crore by FY30, growing 11 to 13 percent a year. Treat that as a forecast made during a strong cycle.
Our view of the decade ahead: if that forecast holds, the market will roughly double in rupees well within ten years, and the gap between makers will widen. Companies with certified high-voltage, fire-safe and export lines should outgrow the market. Those selling only standard wire will meet the entrants on price.
We also expect a wave of acquisitions, as leaders buy specialty capability and private backs regional platforms. Cable makers share these pressures with other engineering goods manufacturers: metal-linked costs, tender buyers and slow payers.
What MSME cable makers and investors should do now
What an MSME cable maker should do next
- Add one specialty BIS licence this year. Solar DC, fire-safe or submersible cable each opens a buyer who compares on approval rather than on the last rupee.
- Go deep in two or three states before going wide. Scheduled replenishment to dealers, and training for the electricians they serve, builds a position a conglomerate cannot buy quickly.
- Start one international certification now. It takes years, and the companies exporting today began years ago.
- Put your copper rules in writing. Use escalation clauses in every project order, hedges against every fixed-price contract, and a cap on days of metal in stock.
- Reset bank limits before growth arrives. Size working capital lines to next year's sales, and price slow-paying buyers for their terms, as we argue in payment terms are price.
- Know your margin by product and by buyer. Most stalled makers cannot say which lines earn money. Our pricing advisory work starts there.
- Decide whether you are building to run or to sell. An acquirer pays for clean accounts, a specialty mix and a management team that does not depend on the founder.
What investors should check in a cable company
- Look at the mix before the margin. Ask what share of sales comes from branded retail, certified project cable, specialty products and exports. The higher that share, the less the entrants can touch it.
- Read margins across a full copper cycle. Compare absolute profit and ROCE over several years. A margin dip during a copper spike is usually arithmetic, not decline.
- Ask for the copper policy in writing. A company that passes copper through without clauses, hedges or inventory limits carries open metal risk on about half its sales.
- Test working capital against the growth plan. If sales are meant to double, check that bank limits and collection terms are planned to double with them.
- Count electricians and approvals. Active electricians in the loyalty scheme, and the number of utility and EPC vendor approvals, are earlier signals than order announcements.
- Price in the entrants. Model a lower margin on standard house wire and low-tension cable for FY28 and FY29, and see what is left.
Our market intelligence and market research work on cable makers starts with those six questions.
Frequently asked questions
How big is the wire and cable industry in India?
Two Crisil studies put it at about ₹1.09 lakh crore and ₹1.41 lakh crore for FY25, because they count differently. Organised makers alone earned about ₹1 lakh crore in FY26, according to Crisil Ratings.
What is the growth rate of the wire and cable industry in India?
Crisil Ratings says volumes grew more than 15 percent a year over five years, and over 20 percent in FY26. It expects revenue to rise 28 to 30 percent in FY27, mostly from higher metal prices. One Crisil forecast puts growth at 11 to 13 percent a year to FY30.
Which are the largest wire and cable companies in India?
By FY25 wires and cables revenue, Polycab India leads, followed by KEI Industries, Havells India, RR Kabel and Finolex Cables, on Crisil Intelligence's count. Apar Industries and Universal Cables come next.
Which wires and cables companies are listed in India?
Listed makers include Polycab India, KEI Industries, Havells India, RR Kabel, Finolex Cables, Apar Industries, Universal Cables, Paramount Communications, Dynamic Cables and Birla Cable. UltraTech Cement, also listed, now makes wires and cables under the Ultravolt brand.
What is the difference between wires and cables?
In the trade, a wire usually means a single insulated conductor for building wiring, sold through shops. A cable bundles several insulated conductors inside an outer sheath, often with armour, and carries power or signals in projects and plants.
Method and sources
This report was prepared by SRF Capital Studio's research desk and checked against public sources in October 2026. Market sizes differ because each source counts a different universe, so we name the basis every time. Figures we could not trace to a named source were removed.
- Crisil Intelligence: Competitive assessment of wires and cables sector in India, published by Polycab India (FY25 data).
- Crisil: Assessment of cables, conductors industries and investments in power sector in India, as cited in Laser Power & Infra's filings (2026).
- Crisil Ratings: Revenue of cables and wires makers to rise 15-16% in fiscal 2026 (26 March 2025).
- Crisil Ratings: Price hikes to haul cable and wire revenue up 28-30% this fiscal (2 June 2026).
- Polycab India: Results for the quarter and year ended 31 March 2026, press release (6 May 2026).
- BOBCAPS: Havells India Q4FY26 result review (22 April 2026).
- KEI Industries: FY26 results and H1 FY26 investor presentation, as reported by Arihant Capital, FilingReader, JM Financial and T&D India (2025 and 2026).
- RR Kabel: FY26 results, as reported by Arihant Capital, ScanX and PL Capital (April and May 2026).
- Finolex Cables: FY26 results, as reported in market coverage (May and June 2026).
- Motilal Oswal: wires and cables sector report, as reported by Business Standard (16 December 2025).
- Paramount Communications: FY26 earnings release, citing Crisil MI&A (May 2026).
- Aditya Birla Group: Wiring India's growth with Ultravolt (September 2026); UltraTech Cement: board announcement on wires and cables (25 February 2025).
- DSIJ: Polycab eyes Q2 support from copper-led buying as competition intensifies (19 September 2026).
- Adani Enterprises: disclosure on the Praneetha Ecocables joint venture (March 2025); Machinist: Praneetha Ecocables plant report (September 2025); Angel One: market reaction report (March 2025).
- Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and Press Information Bureau: renewable capacity additions in FY2025-26 (2026).
- CBRE: India Alternate Sectors Outlook 2026 and Asia Pacific data centre outlook (2026).
- Ministry of Power: Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme; Powerline and Mercom India on its extension (2025 and 2026).
- Bureau of Indian Standards: product manual for IS 694 (2010).
- Wire & Cable India: trade press market estimate for FY24 (undated study, not used as a size).
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