We see a lot of potential in making electronic detonators production.

- Pankaj Kumar

CEO & Whole-time Director, GOCL

How is GOCL Corp evolving as an important player in Indian infrastructure segment?

GOCL holds its major stake in the business of detonators and explosives. For over five decades, we are a significant player in energetics with a substantial client base across mining and infrastructure sector. Our expertise in energetics also provides a headway to cater to the large defence sector with specific and precision oriented requests. We are the pioneers of producing modern fully programmable and intelligent high strength detonators that are used in the mining and the infrastructure industry.

As India continues to focus on infrastructure, the mining and coal industry power requirement is increasing and GOCL is very well positioned to meet the increasing demand of the industry. Moreover, in the light of robust growth for coal the requirements for explosives is a given. Every infrastructure work like roads tunnelling civil works also demands better controlled explosives, which is what GOCL is well equipped with.

Can you throw some light on the explosive business division of yours?

GOCL has a legacy of 60 years in detonators and explosives, and innovation has been the core to our success and relevance in the market. We continue in the path of innovation to be market leaders and sustain our position in the industry. The current product portfolio with us is all born out of innovation that the market demanded.

Moreover, the ongoing development of large mining equipment, or electronic blast detonation systems, has a sweeping and dramatic effect on the industry. Safety also increases through strategy and technique. Time and experience reveals new ways to mitigate risk and get a work done with more precision.

For this segment, we have a healthy growth target. For this year, we are almost doubling our revenues in the explosives and detonators business. We can hit the doubling of our revenue target for this very budget for this year and going by the looks of it, the first month has just been gone by we are on target.

Our R&D is clearly focusing on innovation led by safety to come up with new products.

What are the opportunities you look forward in mining sector for your explosive business?

The Economic Survey 2021-2022 reveals that the demand for coal in the country is expected to be in the range of 1.3-1.5 billion tonnes by 2030, despite the push for renewable energy. This is an increase of 63 per cent from the current (2019-2020) demand of 955.26 million tonnes.

With this uptick in demand from the coal mining sector, there will be need of explosives and detonators. Moreover, there is also a need for metal mining in the country and being an unexplored sector, the scope for the explosive business is tremendous. India can match the levels to Canada and Australia. So, there's a huge potential that is waiting to be tapped.

GOCL manufactures detonators and cartridge explosives for seismic prospecting and underwater blasting works. These products are designed to meet stringent requirements of its application/usage. We also offer wide range of products for use in underground coal mines. It pioneered the development and introduction of permitted category slurry explosives for use in underground coal mines for the first time in the world. The company also manufactures permitted category electric instantaneous and delay detonators and PETN detonating cords for gallery blasting.

Apart from conventional products for tunnelling blast, we also offer electronic products. These products are result of our strong in-house R&D efforts. We also provide technical services to achieve maximum from our designed products.

Once the government gives licences exploration rights to mining companies and private players exclusively, we are very well positioned to meet the increasing demand of the country. 

What kind of safety environments do you follow?

We are frontline players in the areas we operate. So, the safety norms of our products are the best in the business class. Products that GOCL manufacture meet their respective stringent requirements and are quality products as these products are very sensitive to handle. Our strong R&D setup and integrated management systems help us constantly innovate and improve our products.

We have got the best-in-class practices approved and we have our own stringent safety standards that let us pass the inspection that are time and again conducted by regulatory authorities.

We also look at innovation in a major way to provide a safe environment for our workforce, like replacement of manual operations to auto operational tools.

What are your future diversification plans and what kind of growth are you anticipating in the coming years?

The government continues to make efforts to move up in the global electronics supply chain and is expected to come up with new policies. We see a lot of potential in making electronic detonators production. Currently, we have also entered into the EMS space catering to the local needs of electronics in various sectors like automobile, medical, automotive, defence, white good, etc. This business has grown five folds in the past two years and we are looking at investing in the sector and being a major player in the segment.

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