HFCL Approves ₹400 Crore Investment to Expand Optical Fibre and Cable Manufacturing Capacity
HFCL has announced that its board of directors has approved a fresh investment of approximately ₹400 crore to expand its optical fibre (OF) and optical fibre cable (OFC) manufacturing capacities. The expansion builds on the company's ongoing capacity expansion programme and will be funded through a mix of internal accruals and debt.
The proposed capital outlay is expected to be completed by July 2028. Following this latest round of expansion, HFCL's optical fibre manufacturing capacity will be scaled up to 38.50 million fibre kilometres (fkm) per annum, from the current ongoing expansion target of 33.90 million fkm. Optical fibre cable capacity will rise to 56.36 million fkm per annum, up from an ongoing target of 42.36 million fkm.
The company said the decision is driven by a strong order book for OFC and optical connectivity products, a robust pipeline of additional business opportunities expected to materialise over the near to medium term, and a favourable long-term global demand outlook. HFCL cited demand drivers including artificial intelligence infrastructure, hyperscale data centres, cloud computing, high-performance computing, 5G deployments, FTTH and broadband expansion, enterprise fibreisation, rural connectivity initiatives, and telecom network modernisation programmes.
HFCL said the capacity scale-up is intended to strengthen its manufacturing capabilities, improve operating efficiencies and economies of scale, enhance supply-chain resilience, and support its export growth strategy as a global optical communication products supplier.