Ranked as the third largest steel wire producer in India with an annual turnover of Rs. 1350 crore, Bansal Wire’s product mix is quite comprehensive.
Bansal Wire Industries Ltd., the flagship company of Bansal Group, is best known for comprehensively diversified portfolio of steel wires catering to a wide array of industries. As a manufacturer today, Bansal Group has come quite far since its inception in 1938 as a wire trading company owing to its strong commitment to understanding market needs and shaping the products accordingly. Bansal Wire Industries Ltd. commenced commercial production with H.B. Wires in 1985.
The diversification of its portfolio has continued unabated in three main streams viz. Low Carbon Steel, High Carbon Steel and Stainless Steel with the latest addition of Aluminum Alloy Wire as the fourth stream. Today, Bansal Wire is the third largest steel wire producers in India – having six manufacturing facilities in Delhi & NCR. However, with the capacity close to 200,000 tonnes per annum of wires and a sizeable turnover at INR 1350 crores just hint at the future to be unfolded with the Group’s strong urge to spawn almost all conceivable product array related to wires.
Recently, Wire & Cable India had a chance to speak with Mr. Arun Gupta, Managing Director, Bansal Wire Industries Ltd., where he spoke on myriads of issues related with the company and the industry as a whole. Excerpts:
Wire & Cable India: To start with, take us briefly to the journey of Bansal Group so far.
Arun Gupta: We set out the journey in 1938 as wire trading concern, soon to become one of the most acknowledged wire traders of our country. From 1938 to 1985, we were only trading from our Retail Outlet at Sadar Bazar, Delhi and learning the nuances of not only the trading but the entire wire manufacturing processes. Our learning thus significantly concluded in 1985 making us try our hand at manufacturing and Bansal Wire Industries Ltd. commenced commercial production with H.B. Wires in 1985. Since then, we have gone from strength to strength to have an amply diversified portfolio with significant capacities.
Our first month production was a mere 115 tonnes and now we are standing at a monthly production of 15,000 tonnes of Wires. We started our production with black wires, but now the company, as is apparent, is producing almost everything that you can imagine as a steel wire product. We are aiming to serve various industries, facilitating their processes and to improve their end products. The product mix that we have now is quite fascinating – from Stainless Steel Wires & Bars to High & Low Carbon Steel Wires, Profile/Shaped wires, Cable Armouring Wires & Strips, Auto Control Wires, Spring Steel Wires, Welding Wires, Needle Wires and St. Steel Wires for Springs, Nut Bolts & Mesh application.
WCI: As is known, Bansal Wire considers services as one of the key USPs. That’s quite appealing to hear especially when it’s coming from a manufacturer of your repute. Tell us something about it.
AG: By considering services as our USP, all we mean is to satisfy the customer absolutely on all terms – whether it’s time bound delivery, pricing, and most significantly the quality of the material. It may look simple and clichéd when you say it, but to ensure it, you have to mobilize every ounce of your resources judiciously.
Customer satisfaction is simple to utter, yet very difficult to attain. It’s not just about the right product quality. It’s much beyond that. It’s a fair balance struck amongst quality, timely delivery, and suitable price. To achieve this balance, the process starts right from sourcing the raw material and covers steps like understanding the customer’s specifications, steering the production processes and systems to implement those specifications, testing the final product, and timely dispatch of material, ensuring that it reaches the destination “just in time”.
Moreover, service also covers, in its ambit, all the players who need your product, howsoever small they may be, must be served with the same zeal. This can be proved with the facts that the size of the customers we serve ranges from 500 Kg/month to 500 tonnes/month.
WCI: Tell us about Bansal Wire’s product portfolio and the industries it caters to.
AG: We today are serving the needs of a wide array of industries through our products like Automobile, Power, Infrastructure, Fastener Industry, Kitchen Ware & Utensil and General Engineering Industries. We today produce wires which are 16mm thick to fine wires having diameter 0.05mm. Our product portfolio summarily includes Stainless Steel Wires & Bars, High Carbon & Low Carbon Steel Wires, Cable Armouring Wires & Strips, Galvanized Wires, Profile /Shaped Wires, Aluminium Alloy Wires, etc.
Our products fall broadly in three main streams viz. Low Carbon Steel, High Carbon Steel and Stainless Steel. We manufacture stainless steel wires in sizes ranging from 0.05mm to 16.00mm in AISI 200, 300 and 400 series. High Carbon Steel Wires are manufactured in sizes ranging from 0.30mm to 10.00mm having Carbon percentage of .36 to .85, in round wires as well as profile wires. We manufacture cable armouring wires including round/formed wires for cable industries, as per Indian / International specifications e.g. IS-3975 / 1999 and BS – 1442.
Galvanized wires, one of our mainstreams, are Low Carbon or High Carbon Steel Wires, which are coated with Zinc, so as to impart the base wire with superior properties. We also produce sizeable quantities of shaped wires, also known as solid profiles, which allow achieving complex geometries and cross-sections.
So, these are the principal products to mention and, besides these, we have recently (last year) added Aluminum Alloy Wire and related products as our fourth stream, which we are watching closely as it is steadily growing.
WCI: To produce such a wide range of products, there must be a capacious and systematized manu-facturing processes in place. Tell us about the capacity, machines and technology at your plants.
AG: Today, we are the third largest steel wire producers in India- having six manufacturing facilities in NCR with a combined capacity of 200,000 tonnes of wires per annum. This, of course, is possible because of the infrastructure we have which fulfills all the latest standards in terms of machinery and technology. We have all such kind of machineries for wire drawing which are latest, cost effective and having large capacities like, annealing, galvanizing, etc. We also have a series of material testing equipments.
WCI: Is it right that despite commanding such a large portfolio your recent focus has centered more on one or two applications, such as automobile and power, to grow the market footprint?
AG: Of course, the focus is towards tapping these two segments optimally, but not at the cost overlooking other products. We are already present in automobile segment through shaped wires and profile wires. We have been catering to both our OEM and replacement customers. Now, we are stepping ahead to grow our OEM client network through entering into Automotive Control Wire segment as well as in Spring Segment for two-wheeler industry.
As regards serving to power industry, today we are one of the largest suppliers of Cable Armour Wires and Strips in the country.
The ultimate focus, for all the products, remains with the capacity enhancement and market expansion, both in terms of tonnage and newer applications.
WCI: If I ask you the break-up (stream-wise) of your entire produce, where does it go maximum? Do you export also? What are your future production targets?
AG: As already explained that our entire production is in three streams viz. Low Carbon, High carbon, and Stainless Steel stands at more than 15,000 tonnes a month. We are majorly catering to Low Carbon and High Carbon Galvanized product users.
We are not very much into Export at present and are mostly catering to domestic market. However, our exporting activity has risen of late and we exporting to some material to countries like Vietnam, Turkey, Brazil etc. The capacities are not yet much to boast of, but we would certainly like to grow our outreach to international market, especially in stainless steel products. As is apparent, to go on the next level of capacity growth, export is a must.
As for the future strategy, we aim to reach at around 300,000 tonnes/annum in next five years, may be with some backward integration. Our product portfolio is already comprehensive enough, yet we will add some more to our basket in the coming years.
WCI: What opportunities and challenges do you see for the wire and cable industry in times to come?
AG: The industry has moved to becoming a very large industry over the last decade. Although it is a volume-driven product, it has a lot of quality and technical parameters to follow. Over a period of time, the industry has moved from the unorganized to the organized sector. However, about 35 percent of this industry is still in the unorganized sector and that needs to move to the organized side of the fence.
Moreover, the wire and cable industry comprises 40 percent of the entire electrical industry, which is expected to double in size over the next five years. The industry is growing at a CAGR of 15 percent as a result of growth in the power and infrastructure segments. It is expected to grow at similar rate for the next five years. The government’s emphasis on the power sector reforms and infrastructure will further drive growth.
To be specific, the wire industry forms the backbone of each and every industry which eventually engaged in manufacturing some product or the other. For players like us, the ultimate growth in power, infrastructure, and automobile industries holds the key and all these industries are showing signs of moving towards the next big leap as the nation are poised for self-reliance in the manufacturing. Make in India, and now Quality in India, Smart Cities and other mega infrastructural ventures of public and private entities are creating voluminous opportunities for us.
Challenges based on the raw material, human resource, and capital needs to be addressed both on the enterprise and the government levels.
WCI: What’s your mantra of success and philosophy of business?
AG: The mantra of success and business philosophy can be understood well in our company’s catch-phrase, “Hamara Aadarsh- Santoshjanak Vyvahaar” (Our Ideal – Satisfactory Behavior). Now, this Mantra sums up our entire business model. Behavior is a very broad term – business is just part of it. Our business, customer relations, production process, quality maintenance, and internal work culture are all part of “Satisfactory Behavior”. This has led us where we are today and we strongly believe that this Mantra of ours will take us forward from here …..
