Rajeev Jhawar Usha Martin – Raw material sourcing is likely to remain a major challenge

Rajeev Jhawar Usha Martin 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 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.