Rajeev Jhawar Establish Usha Martin as a Global Player

Usha Martin recently had a pivotal year as they moved into a phase of growth after significantly deleveraging the balance sheet over the past three years. The strategic move of Usha Martin and its Managing Director, Rajeev Jhawar to sell off their steel business to Tata Steel had enabled them to significantly deleverage the balance sheet and focus on the firm's core competencies. This has already started yielding results and has placed them in a position of strength.

Usha Martin Limited, under the exemplary management of Rajeev Jhawar is all poised for expansion. This includes enhancing their product mix, focusing on building share in international markets and investing in capacity increase. "We believe that we are at an inflection point. Having been able to stabilise our business, we are truly on our way to strengthen our operations and push the boundaries", Managing Director Rajeev Jhawar proudly affirms. Speaking about the expansion plan of the company, Rajeev Jhawar clarified, "We are in the process of expanding our capacities for rope production, focusing on high-end ropes, specialised wires and also LRPC. We have capital expenditure planned to the tune of approximately Rs.285 Crore and expect to complete our expansion programme over the next 12-15 months".

Usha Martin have been able to establish themselves as a global player and currently have presence in more than 50 countries. The company possess strong capabilities worldwide, which enables them to cater to the needs of the international customers. The focus of Usha Martin Limited on exports is validated by the fact that their international sales account for 51% of the total revenues. In the previous financial year, Usha Martin also focused on increasing exports and profitability by enriching the product mix to highvalue products, and also by increasing penetration in newer geographies like Australia and South Africa. "Our focus on increasing exports by increasing market penetration in newer geographies bore dividends, as our revenue from exports on consolidated basis grew from Rs.1034.26 Crore in the previous year, to Rs.1366.24 Crore", Rajeev Jhawar confirmed.

Usha Martin Limited also gives high importance to research and development, to closely keep up with the diversifying needs of the customers. The company has two comprehensive R&D centres: one in Concesio, Italy and the other in Ranchi, Jharkhand, India. They are backed by an excellent team of R&D professionals, who are continuously engaged in new product innovation and improvement of existing products and processes. Usha Martin is also actively engaged in designing wire ropes through their internally developed software and process optimization, ensuring that the products at par with global benchmarks.