Future is highly dependent on ability and success, Rajeev Jhawar Usha Martin

 Mr Rajeev Jhawar is an Indian industrialist with over three decades of experience in strategic management is the managing director of Usha martin. He is an alumnus of Ranchi University and London Business School. He started his journey as Sr. Vice President (Commercial) and became the Managing Director of Usha Martin Limited in 1998. In the three decades that he has been at the helm of the Usha Martin Group, Rajeev Jhawar has accelerated growth, built a meritocracy and enhanced stakeholder value. His leadership qualities, sharp business acumen, in-depth understanding of business administration and strategic decision making has taken the Group to an altogether higher growth trajectory

Usha Martin started its business as a wire rope manufacturing company. The group has set new standards in the manufacture of wire rods, bright bars, steel wires, speciality wires, wire ropes, strand, conveyor cord, wire drawing and cable machinery…The company is also in the business activities of Steel, Wire & Wire Ropes.

Usha Martin Limited is currently gearing itself up to deal with all possible opportunities and adversaries during these uncertain times. Rajeev Jhawar identifies that the future is highly dependent on ability and success of the policy makers across the globe to implement reforms for equitable and sustainable economic growth. In a bid to improve profitability in the current environment, Usha Martin and Rajeev Jhawar have been focussing on enrichment of the product mix through rejigging of the sales mix, new product development and new market development.

Rajeev Jhawar Usha Martin is working relentlessly for the welfare of the company. At Usha Martin employees are made to work hard on cost reduction through multiple initiatives and have managed to be successful in many areas through improvement in efficiencies of the plant and equipment and reduction in overheads. Cost reduction is a continuous journey that Rajeev Jhawar and Usha Martin has undertaken and they continue their march on this path in this difficult environment. Usha Martin is continuously engaged in the process of improving their EBITDA per tonne and have several cost-optimisation and process improvement initiatives in place. Rajeev Jhawar has a dedicated team at Usha Martin Limited that constantly monitors fixed costs, without compromising on quality.

Usha Martin Limited 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 for this purpose. Rajeev Jhawar also ensures that the company work closely with their R&D centres to enhance daily manufacturing efficiencies.

Government of India has put emphasis on accelerating the growth momentum of the country by targeting infrastructural growth including road, rails, urban, power, ports, shipping etc. According to Rajeev Jhawar, the infrastructure sector has the potential to kick start the economy. He hopes that the various plans initiated by the Government of India will boost domestic production. Rajeev Jhawar also expects that all these measures and thrust on infrastructural development will have a major positive impact on the demand for wire ropes and steel in the long run. During the FY20–21 the demand in realty and construction sector witnessed a bit of revival and also with the expected steady spending on infrastructure by government(s) the LRPC strands and speciality products used in the wire rope industry might prove to be growth drivers for Rajeev Jhawar’s Usha Martin Limited in coming years.

Further with realty sector crawling back to normalcy, the demand for elevator ropes is expected to pick up. The FY20–21 primarily due to social distancing norms, saw improvement in automobile sector which in turn has resulted in renewed demand of value-added products of Usha Martin such as spring wire and other wires which are especially attributable to the said sector. Rajeev Jhawar also acknowledged that the last quarter of the financial year witnessed uptick in demand in oil and offshore market globally, thereby boosting up demand for large diameter ropes manufactured by the company.

During the next fiscal year, Usha Martin Limited aims to expand its global market presence in Elevator Ropes, Crane Ropes, Surface Mining Ropes and Trawler Ropes segments. Rajeev Jhawar also expects the exports to countries such as Singapore, Australia, USA, Canada, South Africa, Latin America and Russia to increase.

Rajeev Jhawar also express concerns that raw material sourcing is likely to remain a major challenge in FY 2021–22 and beyond. So, expanding the raw material supplier base — both nationally and internationally is to be on the fast track. Enrichment of product mix will continue to be one of the key drivers for the firm. Usha Martin aims to shift the focus from Volume to Value by exiting from low contributory items gradually and focusing more on high value-added products. Business through service-oriented projects and import substitution is already on the rise and expected to grow further in this fiscal.

Rajeev Jhawar also expects the ‘Make in India’ policy of the Government of India to add impetus on this further. In the new world order post-pandemic, digital marketing is likely to become the tool for future growth and the degree of digital transformation that a company undergoes will become the key business differentiator. Therefore, Rajeev Jhawar focuses on establishing highly interactive digital marketing channels and using advanced tools and techniques to aggressively increase customer engagement, develop interest and awareness among referral communities or B2B decision makers, generate online leads, build online reputation and ultimately enhance brand value.

Demand for wire ropes ‘fairly decent’ in international markets –Rajeev Jhawar Usha Martin stays hopeful

 Previous year proved to be most challenging in living memory as COVID-19 brought economies and businesses to a grinding halt. India was hit hard by the pandemic. Usha Martin Limited expects the Indian economy to rebound on the back of pent-up demand across sectors. Rajeev Jhawar, Managing Director of Usha Martin Limited hopes that Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) monetary stimulus and the Government of India’s fiscal measures will bring the economy back to a sustainable positive territory. He believes that the substantial budgetary outlay on infrastructure by Government of India will augur well for their business.

Rajeev Jhawar  expects that the domestic demand for their products, particularly in the construction and auto sectors will start picking up after the monsoon season. “The various measures announced by the Central government to boost the economy are likely to start yielding results post-monsoon”, Rajeev Jhawar said. There should be a pick-up in demand during the festival season post-September-October, by which time the company hope that the Covid situation would also be brought slightly under control. He also forecasts his views on the various stimulus measures taken by the government to enhance the growth of the economy.

Rajeev Jhawar, is the managing director of Usha Martin Limited

While the demand for wire rope has been fairly decent in international markets, the domestic demand across various sectors has been very low due to the lockdown in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, Rajeev Jhawar said. The reverse migration of labourers had affected industries such as construction, particularly in the western and northern regions of the country. This impacted the demand for wire rope.

UML’s wire rope business manufactures wire, strands, LRPC and wire ropes, which cater to various industries, including steel, infrastructure, construction and auto. “The demand from construction, auto and oil sectors is down. Our plant is currently operating at 50–55 per cent of the installed capacity. The export demand is, however, good and the rupee depreciation is supporting us,” Rajeev Jhawar said. The company is hopeful of ramping up capacities by the second half of this fiscal once the Covid situation is brought under control and the domestic demand starts picking up.

Usha Martin Limited also 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.

Global demand for the oil and offshore market saw improvement during the FY20–21 which in turn boosted the demand for speciality rope products of the company catering to the said sector. According to Rajeev Jhawar, it is expected that the demand from the said sector shall sustain in the next fiscal and is expected to provide business opportunities to the company. Further Rajeev Jhawar also states that with steady infrastructure spending by the government, speciality products used in construction and infrastructural sector may be growth drivers for the company in the years to come.

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 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 Limited has a manufacturing capacity of around 2,30,000 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. The company recorded a consolidated revenue of Rs. 2,097.28 crore, compared to Rs. 2,153.82 crore in FY19–20. UML’s consolidated EBITDA stood at Rs. 312.56 crore in FY20–21 compared to Rs. 284.96 crore in the previous year. Despite the shrinkage in revenue, there was a marked improvement in the EBITDA margin from 13.23% to 14.90%. During the year, Usha Martin Limited had adequate working capital and liquidity, which ensured that their operations went on smoothly.

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.

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 Usha Martin 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 Limited with the leadership of Rajeev Jhawar, continues to follow stringent safety protocols to ensure wellbeing of its employees and is in continuous process of dynamically adopting to the ever changing global and domestic macro-economic environment as and when the same is required in these post — pandemic times.

Rajeev Jhawar enhances stakeholder value of Usha Martin Limited

 Rajeev Jhawar been the Managing Director at Usha Martin Limited since May 19, 2008. Rajeev Jhawar is the backbone of Usha Martin Limited. He has stood with the company through its thick and thin times and turned around the company back to the track of success. He is an Indian industrialist with over three decades of experience in strategic management is the managing director of Usha martin. He is an alumnus of Ranchi University and London Business School. He started his journey as Sr. Vice President (Commercial) and became the Managing Director of Usha Martin Limited in 1998.

Usha Martin is known for making a wide range of wire rope products, which have applications across the world. The ropes manufactured by Usha Martin serve in some of the most critical applications across diversified industrial segments, which include oil & offshore, cranes, mining, elevators, aerials, fishing, conveyor belts and general engineering.

Rajeev Jhawar been the Managing Director at Usha Martin 

Usha Martin Limited was arduous for several years. After hiving off its steel division to Tata in 2019 and clearing most of its debts, the company now sees itself in a reasonably healthy position. The current debt of the company, including the working capital, is now merely Rs582 crore, as against Rs4,600 crore in 2018–19. Usha Martin has deleveraged its balance sheet by selling its steel business, readying for a turnaround. As a global giant in the wire rope industry, the company’s future remains promising and it is poised for a significant rerating from here.

In April 2019, Tata Sponge, a subsidiary of Tata Steel, was the company that took control of Usha Martin’s one million tonne steel plant in Jamshedpur for the sum of Rs4,525 crore. Tata Sponge, renamed Tata Steel Long Products (TSPL), is into alloy-based manufacturing in the long products segment, with a producing iron-ore mine, a coal mine under development and captive power plants. While over 2,000 people of Usha Martin’s steel division have been absorbed by Tata, the deal made possible by Rajeev Jhawar also assured Usha Martin a supply of steel for its wire ropes division at market price from Tata for five years.

In the three decades that he has been at the helm of the Usha Martin Group, Rajeev Jhawar has accelerated growth, built a meritocracy and enhanced stakeholder value. His leadership qualities, sharp business acumen, in-depth understanding of business administration and strategic decision making has taken the Group to an altogether higher growth trajectory. Usha Martin Limited has won Best Supplier Award in 2013 from Gabriel India Limited under the leadership of Rajeev Jhawar.