By Fakir Hassen, IANS,
Johannesburg : The power alternatives offered by several Indian companies that exhibited at the annual Computer Faire here have found favour with South African businesses, according to organisers.
Although only seven Indian manufacturers participated in the 30th Computer Faire, which ended here at the weekend, as compared to 30 last year, business had been brisk and lots of leads were being followed up by these companies, according to Vikas Gupta, deputy director of the Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council, who led the Indian delegation.
“Companies like Su-Kam Power Systems, Genus Power Infrastructures and others have seen the opportunities that South Africa presents, with its current power crisis,” Gupta told IANS.
He was referring to the fact that an unexpected surge in demand for power has caught the national energy supplier Eskom offguard and forced it to resort to load shedding in recent months.
“People here are looking for solutions and in the computer industry, with its huge need to ensure that servers and desktops remain powered up in outages, made us come here to show India’s expertise in this area.
“But we are also showing our expertise in specialised software areas where India has firmly entrenched itself in South Africa as not being a one-time seller, having shown a genuine interest and proving that Indian products are of superior quality with no compromises, yet remaining cost-effective solutions,” Gupta added.
Dhananjay Sharma, deputy general manager (global business division) of Su-Kam, told IANS that the demand for its products in South Africa had shifted from generators to invertors as consumers want to be environment friendly.
Vishay Singh, Southern African agent for Su-Kam, said that at the height of the power crisis here, his company could not import fast enough to keep up with the demand for generators and invertors.
“Business here has also been looking at alternative energy and Su-Kam in particular is well-geared for this with its modular solutions such as solar and wind energy options.
“Online UPS demand has been great in both the business and government sector, with more than 10,000 units sold in just six months,” Singh said.
Genus Power Infrastructures Ltd, another Indian exhibitor at the Computer Faire, was also trying to expand into the UPS and invertor market after having already found an agent here for its meter products.
“We have seen a lot of interest from local businessmen and are hoping that we can sign up an agent here soon,” Ashish Agarwal, assistant manager for International Business, told IANS.