India’s Top 100 Engineering Companies

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India’s Top 100 Engineering Companies

India’s Top 100 Engineering Companies

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Sep 06,24

Despite a slowdown in some of the major global markets amid geo-political tensions, India's engineering exports edged up to $ 109 billion in 2023-24 (2.13 per cent more than $ 107.04 billion in 2022-23). In this edition, Smart Manufacturing & Enterprises (SME) presents India's Top 100 Engineering Companies who have out-performed their peers in FY24 and have emerged as the winners in 2024 list.

For three consecutive years, India’s economy has surpassed growth expectations, averaging an 8.3 per cent annual increase during this period, despite global uncertainties. This strong performance is attributed to robust domestic demand and on-going government reforms and capital expenditure.

India's manufacturing sector, which contributes 17 per cent to the nation's GDP, has established the country as the fifth-largest manufacturing economy in the world. Despite this, with only 3.1 per cent of global GDP, there remains substantial potential for growth, according to a report by Nuvama, a wealth and investment company. In recent years, the Government of India (GoI) has implemented strategic initiatives such as Make in India, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), and the Production Linked Incentives (PLI) scheme. These efforts, combined with the China Plus One strategy, offer significant growth opportunities for the Indian manufacturing sector.

Manufacturing sees a paradigm shift

Launched in 2014, the Government of India’s Make in India initiative aimed to establish India as a global manufacturing hub. This was subsequently supported by the Aatmanirbhar Bharat campaign and the introduction of Production Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes across various sectors. These policy efforts are now yielding results. Over the past five years, India has witnessed an increase in foreign technical partnerships, especially in mobile phones, electronics, and food processing, with major technology transfer partners including the US, Germany, and Japan. As a result, India is increasingly positioning itself as a significant player in global manufacturing.

Recently, even Global Times, China’s official newspaper that has always been critical of India, acknowledged India's rise on the global manufacturing map. In August 2024, while sharing a list of the world's top 10 countries in manufacturing output on the social media platform 'X', it specifically highlighted India. With a manufacturing value added of $ 456 billion, India ranked fifth in the list - ahead of countries like South Korea, Mexico, Italy, France and Brazil, but behind China, the US, Germany and Japan.

India's manufacturing landscape is undergoing a significant transformation, with investment opportunities emerging across a wide range of sectors. Growth in areas such as infrastructure (including roads, airports, railways, and ports), aerospace and defense, electronics, automotive, electric vehicles (EVs), energy (particularly renewables), data centers, and more are providing strong momentum, driving demand for Indian manufacturing (engineering) companies.

According to Nuvama, while 80-plus corporates (across five to six industries) led the capex cycle previously, now over 400 corporates and 600 unlisted entities (spread across 35-plus industries) are driving the current capex super-cycle. These investments in diversified sectors are poised to sustain growth in the long term.

For instance, the power sector is attracting substantial investments, with the market size reaching Rs 65 billion for power transformers and Rs 63 billion for distribution transformers. Additionally, the market for cables (both LV and HV) is valued at Rs 662 billion, and there is significant investment flowing into insulators, energy meters, transmission towers, and conductors.

On the other hand, electronics manufacturing in India crossed $ 100 billion market in 2023-24, which was $ 49 billion in FY17. Electronics now has become the country's fifth largest export commodity (with $ 30 billion in FY24), growing by 23 per cent annually.

Similarly, defence exports jumped by whopping 78 percent in the first quarter of 2024-2025 to Rs 6,915 crore from Rs 3,885 crore in Q1 FY24. Defence exports, which have been on a roll, hit a record Rs 21,083 crore (approximately $2.63 billion) in 2023-2024, up 32.5 per cent compared with Rs 15,920 crore in FY22.

Engineering growth

India took a big economic leap in 2023-24, surpassing all market estimates of GDP, with 8.15 per cent year-over-year (YoY) growth. Indian exports surged by an impressive 8.1 per cent YoY in the fourth quarter of FY24 — the highest in the fiscal year. The engineering sector, which contributes approximately 40 per cent of the country's total manufacturing exports, is the largest contributor to India's overall exports (with a share of 24 per cent).

In fact, India's engineering exports edged up to $ 109 billion in 2023-24 (2.13 per cent more than $ 107.04 billion in 2022-23) despite a slowdown in some of the major global markets amid geo-political tensions. While growth in the traditional basket of exports continue to decline in the recent years, exports of high-value goods has seen consistent increase during this period. For example, exports of high-value manufactured goods like pharmaceuticals, chemicals, engineering products, and electronics achieved record levels in Q4 FY24, propelling overall growth in merchandise exports in the high value-added segment. This augurs well for India as it aims to increase its integration into the global value chain and increase its exports to $ 2 trillion over the next six years.

In July 2024, India's engineering goods exports touched $ 9.04 billion - a rise of 3.6 per cent compared to $ 8.72 billion in July 2023. The sector's cumulative exports for the April-July 2024 witnessed a healthy 4.18 per cent increase to $ 36.97 billion. In the last few quarters, the engineering (manufacturing) sector has been facing the headwinds due to high freight rates, protectionism, and weak demand in certain markets. Hence, this continued upward trajectory of India's engineering goods exports reflects the sector's resilience amid a challenging global environment.

India's engineering exports are competitive globally and expected to gain further market share in the coming years, with the country entering into more free trade agreements (FTAs), feels EEPC India. Recent FTAs with the UAE and Australia have allowed Indian exporters to deepen their foothold in these key markets. With several measures aimed at boosting employment and skilling in the sector, the Union budget 2024-25 has put a spotlight on manufacturing. It is clear that the government sees manufacturing as crucial to achieving Viksit Bharat status by 2047.

Against this backdrop, we, at Smart Manufacturing & Enterprises (SME), present India's Top 100 Engineering Companies who have out-performed their peers in FY24 and have emerged as the winners in 2024 list.

Methodology for selection

For ranking, we have followed a rigorous, process-based method by focusing on two parameters - revenues and net profit. While net profit clearly shows how much is left for shareholders, revenue figures are important as they reflect how the demand for products or services is moving. Hence, both these parameters have been given equal weightage in the ranking process.

For ranking purposes, the annual reports from the last three years (FY24, FY23, and FY22) were analysed to assess growth over two periods: from FY22 to FY23 and from FY23 to FY24. Greater weightage was given to recent performance, specifically from FY23 to FY24. Composite scores were calculated by multiplying the assigned weightage with the ranks for both revenues and net profit. These composite scores were then summed and ordered in descending fashion, with lower scores indicating higher rankings. After completing this ranking process, the top performers in the Indian engineering sector were identified and shortlisted.

Some might argue that a few companies that haven’t demonstrated growth in sales or net profit are still making it to the top of the list. However, as noted, this is a weighted ranking system. Consequently, if a company has not shown growth in specific parameters or periods, it is ranked lower in the list.

We have made several adjustments, including removing some companies with manual intervention, as these diversified companies had significant income from real estate or other non-core segments. Companies that have not yet released their fourth quarter results of FY24 were not considered, and a few organisations opted not to participate in this process, so they are not included in the list.

Given that engineering involves both technical expertise and execution capabilities, we have categorised the companies into four distinct segments based on their revenues in FY24. We have specifically excluded companies with more than Rs 5,000 crore revenues in 2023-24. Companies recording profits in 2023-24 were only considered for the selection process.

Based on their revenues, companies have been placed in 4 categories as follows:

Very Large: Companies having revenues of above Rs 2000 crore upto Rs 5000 crore
Large: Companies having revenues of above Rs 1000 crore upto Rs 2000 crore
Medium: Companies having revenues of above Rs 250 crore upto Rs 1000 crore
Small: Companies having revenues of above Rs 75 crore to Rs 250 crore

Since we are identifying the top 100 engineering companies, we have chosen the top 25 companies from each of the four categories.

Based on these thorough observations, the companies that have demonstrated their ability to grow are genuine contenders, proving their strength in a challenging economic climate. Here, we provide a list of India's Top 100 Engineering Companies in 204 by taking into account almost all aspects that needed to be considered.

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Table 1: Top 25 Engineering Companies (Category: Very Large) in India having revenues from Rs 2000 crore to Rs 5000 crore in FY24

Disclaimer: In “Very Large Category”, 34 "qualified companies" were analysed and ranked on the parameters (mentioned above). This list shows only the Top 25 Companies in the "Very Large Category".

Table 2: Top 25 Engineering Companies (Category: Large) in India having revenues from Rs 1000 crore to Rs 2000 crore in FY24

Disclaimer: In “Large Category”, 36 "qualified companies" were analysed and ranked on the parameters (mentioned above). This list shows only the Top 25 Companies in the "Large Category".

Table 3: Top 25 Engineering Companies (Category: Medium) in India having revenues from Rs 250 crore to Rs 1000 crore in FY24

Disclaimer: In “Medium Category”, 79 "qualified companies" were analysed and ranked on the parameters (mentioned above). This list shows only the Top 25 Companies in the "Medium Category".

Table 4: Top 25 Engineering Companies (Category: Small) in India having revenues from Rs 75 crore to Rs 250 crore in FY24

Disclaimer:In “Small Category”, 70 "qualified companies" were analysed and ranked on the parameters (mentioned above). This list shows only the Top 25 Companies in the "Small Category"