Global demand for optical fibre strong despite macro headwinds
Sterlite Tech says there is no change in the company's production scale-up plans or targets as demand for its product portfolio is robust
New Delhi: Digital solutions company Sterlite Technologies has said investment commitment of global customers for optical fibre remains strong despite macroeconomic headwinds and that telcos and hyperscalers will continue to spend to gain a market edge.
According to Sterlite Tech Managing Director Ankit Agarwal, there is no change in the company's production scale-up plans or targets as demand for its product portfolio is robust. "In our key accounts, most of our customers are public, and their investment plans are well known. We track it and see fairly strong capex investment plans over 2-3 years and for some even up to the next 5 years," Agarwal said.
He said customers, both telecom and hyperscalers, continue to spend with a focus on innovation and technology. That demand is reflected in the company's order book of Rs 12,054 crore. The term hyperscalers refers to large cloud service providers, whose offerings include computing and storage at an enterprise scale. STL is also positive on India's market outlook. "Be it 5G and Fibre-to-Home plans, as also Government talking of next phase of Bharat Net project, which will mobilise huge investment into fibre networks, we feel STL is well placed to capture the good position in the market growth," he said. So far, as its global portfolio is concerned, the company sees clear commitments from telecom operators.
"We see clear commitments with telecom operators. They are of the view that even if there are concerns in the near term, investments in fibre optics will be a key differentiator for them from a long-term perspective. We hear from most customers about very strong focus and prioritisation of fiberisation of networks," Agarwal said. Cloud migration "is here to stay" even if there are some short-term blips in the market. "All hyperscalers are actually continuing their commitments towards data centre build-outs, and our role will be to provide some of the optical fibre solutions both to connect data centres and within data centres," Agarwal explained. Cloud migration will continue.
