Rajeev Jhawar Guides Usha Martin To Quickly Anticipate The Challenges Posed By The Pandemic

The commencement of the fiscal year 2021–2022 marked the onset of the second wave of the pandemic in India. Though the effects of the second wave was devastating from a social perspective, the severity of the impact on the economy was more subdued as compared to the previous fiscal. The economy continued on its path of recovery underlined by a marked increase in public sector capex spending, especially infrastructure, robust exports, services sector rebound and improved consumption levels.

Rajeev Jhawar

The Ukraine and Russian conflict also led to escalating input prices of high carbon wire rods and the prices had hit an unprecedented high by early March 2022. Since international crude oil price is expected to remain firm, an uptick on the demand side is expected in the oil and gas market segment globally which will boost demand for products of the Usha Martin such as large diameter ropes and drilling lines, says MD Rajeev Jhawar.

According to Mr. Rajeev, quickly anticipating these challenges posed by the pandemic was the most important step that helped the company remain resilient in the previous financial 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 highvalue products, and also by increasing our penetration in newer geographies like Australia and South Africa”, he said.

Usha martin

Increasing market penetration in newer geographies bore dividends, as the revenue of Rajeev Jhawar’s Usha Martin from exports on consolidated basis grew from Rs.1034.26 Crore in the FY 2020–21, to Rs.1366.24 Crore during FY 2021–22 an increase of 32.10% and is continuously improving this year also. Usha Martin is currently preparing for more expansion under leadership of Rajeev Jhawar. This includes enhancing their product mix, focusing on building share in international markets and investing in capacity increase.

“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”, Rajeev Jhawar Usha Martin MD said.