Wheels India has more than doubled its net profit for the second quarter to Rs 10.98 crore (Rs 5.14 crore last year), while revenues rose 19 per cent to Rs 496 crore — bolstered by growth in the export market.
“Almost 30 per cent of the sales growth contribution in Q2 came from exports business, with a strong traction for mining truck wheels,” said Mr Srivats Ram, Managing Director.
While over 80 per cent of the company's business comes from the domestic market, it exports wheels for off-road construction equipment and agricultural applications to Japan, Korea, US, Brazil, Belgium, South Africa, China and Indonesia.
Wheels India has planned a capex of Rs 70 crore this year — a significant part of this will go towards expanding presence in the exports market.
“The domestic automotive market has not grown much, but we were able to realise better margins from construction and mining equipment segments (export).” Mr Ram expects the “sluggish” domestic market to start looking up in the fourth quarter.
Meanwhile, Wheels India has entered into a technical agreement with Topy Industries, a Japanese steel wheel maker, towards process, design and development of steel passenger car wheels.
While wheels are the mainstay of Wheels India's business, the company also supplies air suspension systems to buses. “We are working on trucks, trailers and ambulance suspension systems,” said Mr Ram.