Sujana to develop LED lighting products

HYDERABAD - Sujana Energy Limited (SE), part of the $1.3 billion Sujana Group, announced Thursday it has entered into a strategic partnership with Japanese Nichia Corporation to develop technology for energy-efficient lighting products in India.

Under this collaboration, Sujana will invest $5 million dollars to manufacture LED (light-emitting diode) lighting products for homes, offices and streets at its facility in Madhapur here. Nichia will provide LEDs while Sujana will design the products.

Sujana plans to introduce soon in the market maximum energy-saving street lights, indoor lighting products like LED bulbs and solar LED lantern.

The sales are expected to start in September this year and the company is aiming sales worth Rs.20 to 25 crore in this fiscal.

“We are targeting top-line growth of Rs.500 crore in the first three years of operations,” said C. Hari Kiran, managing director, Sujana Energy. The bottom-line growth is expected to be 20 to 30 percent.

Sujana is focusing on LED bulbs, which will replace incandescent bulb, saving 50 to 60 percent of electricity. “The LED products, though two times costlier than the normal lighting, will be strong and reliable. They will have 15 years of life if used for five to six hours every day,” he said.

According to Hari Kiran, the Indian lighting market is fragmented but light replacement market is estimated at $1 billion.

For a country like India, faced with acute shortage of electricity on the one hand and “dark region” (unconnected to the power grid) on the other, LED lighting is the cost and energy efficient means of lighting. In fact, it affords more than 50 percent saving in power costs for the same level of luminous efficiency and works well with renewable energy sources like solar power.

Under the Solar Power Mission itself the government plans to convert 60 Indian cities to total solar powered cities, making for an opportunity of almost Rs.1,800 million for LED lighting equipment alone.

“Although competition is extremely high in the Indian market, I believe, this collaboration between Sujana and Nichia will be a breakthrough for expanding LED lighting and display,” said Makoto Takenaka, managing director of Nichia Chemical Pte Ltd.

Nichia Corporation is the largest supplier of white LEDs in the world. It offers many products and technologies that can be adapted to Indian conditions, he said.