OREANDA-NEWS. Toshiba Corporation announced that it will reinforce its transmission & distribution (T&D) business in India with a 3-billion yen (approx.US\\$30-million) investment in new production capacity at Toshiba Transmission & Distribution Systems (India) Pvt. Ltd. (TTDI) in Hyderabad. A new line for large power transformers will come on line in spring 2015, at the same time as the full scale launch of a new line for switchgears.

According to Dr. Katsutoshi Toda, Chairman & Managing Director, TTDI, "India is a high growth market that Toshiba has positioned as a strategic base for its power-related businesses. In the period to FY2016, Toshiba plans to invest a cumulative 10-billion yen (approx.US\\$100-million) in its T&D business there, including this current round of investment."

Alongside its existing production line of small- and medium-capacity transformers and low- and medium-voltage switchgears, the new power transformer line will support production of 765kV transformers with a capacity of 500MVA, while the new switchgear line will produce high voltage products.

"Toshiba is seeking to secure a 20% share of the Indian market by 2018, and also reinforce Toshiba Transmission & Distribution Systems (India) Pvt. Ltd. as a core T&D production base for other major markets, including Europe, ASEAN, and Africa", added Dr. Toda.

India continues to record high economic growth, and long-term capital investment for infrastructure is expected in key areas such as electricity and transportation. In T&D, - Indian government is promoting measures to increase the number of 765kV substations, toward increasing the country's transmission capacity five times by 2017. This policy is driving demand for large power transformers and high voltage switchgears.

Toshiba established Toshiba Transmission & Distribution Systems (India) Pvt. Ltd. in 2013 by acquiring T&D business from Vijai Electricals Ltd. with 20.0 billion yen (approx.US\\$200-million), and also started operation of a new power transformer facility in Russia in February 2014. By utilizing these operations as part of an integrated global supply network, plus with the worldwide sales network of Landis+Gyr, a Toshiba Group company, Toshiba aims to achieve global sales of 700-billion yen (approx.US\\$7,000-million) in the T&D and smart grid business in FY2015.