"We had a Pivotal Year at Usha Martin"-Rajeev Jhawar

Rajeev Jhawar Usha Martin is one of the world's leading manufacturers of wire rope. Established in the year 1960, the organization has grown from strength to strength to establish itself as the market leader with its multi-unit and multi-product portfolio. All of the company's infrastructural facilities are equipped with the latest state-of-the-art high-capacity machines to manufacture world-class products. Rajeev Jhawar is the managing director of Usha Martin Limited since May 19, 2018. Rajeev Jhawar led Usha Martin is currently in the process of expanding their capacities for rope production, focusing on high-end ropes, specialised wires and also LRPC.

Usha Martin is a leading global manufacturer of wire ropes. Established in the year 1960, the organization has grown from strength to strength to establish itself as the market leader with its multi-unit and multi-product portfolio. Usha Martin's wire rope manufacturing facilities in Ranchi, Hoshiarpur, Dubai, Bangkok and UK produce the widest range of wire ropes that find application in various industries across the world. All of the company's infrastructural facilities are equipped with the latest state-of-the-art high-capacity machines to manufacture world-class products.

Rajeev Jhawar led Usha Martin currently focuses on expanding their capacities. "We have had a pivotal year at Usha Martin, as we moved into a phase of growth after significantly deleveraging our balance sheet over the past three years. We are now poised for expansion – enhancing our product mix, focusing on building share in international markets and investing in capacity increase", Rajeev Jhawar says. The second and third waves of the pandemic during the previous year continued to pose a serious challenge to the day-to-day working of the firm. But as a responsible organization, Usha Martin continued to prioritize the health and safety of its employees and their families, other stakeholders and the community at large.

COVID-19 created significant supply chain disruptions resulting in high cost of logistics. According to Rajeev Jhawar, this was a huge challenge for the company, as prices of many of their key raw materials were also at record highs. With the ingenious leadership of Rajeev Jhawar, Usha Martin was able to overcome these challenges and create profits in the past year. "We, as an organisation, were quick to anticipate these challenges and undertook several mitigation measures to ensure our businesses remained resilient. We were successful in maintaining our margins and profitability by enriching our product mix to high value products, and also by increasing our penetration in newer geographies like Australia and South Africa", Rajeev Jhawar confirms.

Because of this resilience, despite all the challenges, on consolidated basis, the revenue of Usha Martin Limited in this year increased from Rs.2097.28 Crore to Rs.2688.07 Crore, an increase of 28.17% over the previous year. The focus of Usha Martin on increasing exports by increasing market penetration in newer geographies, under the guidance of Rajeev Jhawar proved to be a significant step in increasing the companies' revenue.

Usha Martin is currently in the process of expanding their capacities for rope production, focusing on high-end ropes, specialised wires and also LRPC. They have capital expenditure planned to the tune of approximately Rs.285 Crore and expect to complete the expansion programme over the next 12-15 months.