Hyderabad|India|May'2009: Surya Roshni Ltd., the largest exporter of G.I. Pipes and the flagship company of the 1800 crore Surya Group, announced the launch of its Consumer Education Programme to educate more than millions of consumers across 100 cities in India.

The program aims to educate the dealers, retailer, and consumers on the disadvantages of using spurious pipes which also entails the benefits of using good quality GI and ERW pipes.

Elaborating on the initiative, Mr. J.P. Agarwal, Chairman & Managing Director, Surya Roshni Ltd. said, “We have seen that consumers are not adequately educated about the difference in the quality of spurious pipes available in the market. Due to this they tend to buy poor quality products which are priced 10% lower than quality products. Spurious pipes last for just 2-3 years while pipes manufactured as per prescribed norms tend to last for atleast 30 years. At a cumulative level, consumers end up paying a lot more if they use sub-standard products.”

Spurious pipes comprise over 30% of the steel pipes market sales and are manufactured using half the quantity of Standard Zinc coating, hence reducing the life of the product. These poor quality pipes are produced from under gauge patra coils, instead of tested H.R. coils. The company has a view to increase the knowledge base of consumers about spurious pipes, especially at a time when the industry is facing a large scale shortage of the pipes used for construction and infrastructure.

Recently, the company has also undertaken expansion of its units in Gujarat with an investment of 400 crores, expected to generate employment for 2000 people. With a target of revenues in excess of Rs. 1000 crores, the company will be increasing their production capacity to 2 lakh MT of spiral-welded steel pipes and 1 lakh ERW steel pipes used for oil and gas transportation.

Mr. Agarwal added, “The industry has been facing a shortage of pipes and we forecast this demand to increase over the next 8 quarters, due to which we have begun with the expansion of our plant.

The steel Pipes Division has also expanded into manufacture of structural hollow section (pipes) for wide range of applications. These Square and Rectangular Hollow steel sections, manufactured under Japanese technology are used for many major application areas by large customers like Airport Authority, Railways, Metro, Auto, Bus Stands, Industrial Sheds, Towers, Buildings and infrastructure.