Usha Martin Limited expects to gain momentum in their international business as most countries where they are present have returned to near normalcy. Talking about exports, Rajeev Jhawar said the demand for wire rope has been ‘fairly decent’, if not strong, from markets such as Europe, the US, South America, Australia and South-East Asia. Exports account for close to 40 per cent of the company’s consolidated turnover, which stood at around ₹2,154 crore for the year ended March 31, 2020.
Usha Martin, which sold its one-million-tonne integrated steel plant at Jamshedpur to Tata Steel for ₹4,200–4,600 crore, completed the first full year of operations of its wire rope business in FY20. Through the strategic move of selling UML’s steel division to Tata Steel, Rajeev Jhawar Usha Martin helped the company in enabling them to significantly de-leverage their balance sheet and free up critical cash pool, which they could invest in their profitable and sustainable wire rope business. The result of such divestment resulted in enhanced fiscal stability and allowed Usha Martin to focus primarily on their core business.
Usha Martin, under the guidance of Rajeev Jhawar have been able to solidify their leadership position through the delivery of industry-leading quality products across our state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities. “Through leveraging the capabilities of our R&D facilities in Italy and India, we are constantly striving to enhance manufacturing efficiencies and quality of our products”, Rajeev Jhawar says. The company always strives to improve the quality of their products to enhance value for customers. Leveraging the capabilities of R&D facilities in Italy and India and modifying the designs of their products based on geographies and needs of the customers are carried out. Rajeev Jhawar also ensures that the company work closely with their R&D centres to enhance daily manufacturing efficiencies.
Usha Martin has a manufacturing capacity of around 230,000 tonnes per annum across its two facilities in India — at Ranchi (Jharkhand) and Hoshiarpur (Punjab) — and three overseas units in the UK, Thailand and Dubai. UML’s previous steel business had a producing iron-ore mine, a coal mine under development and captive power plants. Enrichment of product mix will continue to be a key value driver for Usha Martin Limited, by gradually reducing dependence on low-contributory items and increasing focus on value-added products.
According to Rajeev Jhawar, the company will take concerted effort on maintaining fiscal solidity with focused capital expenditure. Usha Martin is planning to continue to place greater emphasis on implementing digitalization across the organization.
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