Bharat Wire Ropes has now established a new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Maharashtra to cater to the spiralling demand for its products. In this interview, Mayank Mittal, Joint Managing Director, elaborates about the company’s operations.

B harat Wire Ropes Limited (BWR) was established in 1968 and incorporated in 1986. Headquartered in Mumbai, the company is engaged in the manufacturing of specialty steel wire rope, sling and strands. There was a change of management in 2010 when BWR was acquired by the Mittal family. Over the years, BWR has established itself as one of the largest manufacturers of wire ropes and strands in India and has two manufacturing facilities at Atgaon and Chalisgaon in Maharashtra with a combined capacity of 78,000 MTPA. Excerpts from the interview:

How would you define the current status of the company?

BWR is undergoing sea change to become a global major in manufacturing of wire ropes where safety is the absolute necessity, innovation is the focus, excellent pricing is an expectation and customer satisfaction is of paramount importance. Combing the four attributes is what makes BWR different. The company’s product portfolio also includes mechanically or hand-spliced slings, earth wires, stay wires, guy wires and spiral strands.

What is the infrastructure at the new facility at Chalisgaon and what is its capacity for wire rope production?

The new state-of-art facility at Chalisgaon is a Rs 510 crore greenfield project with the capacity to manufacture 66,000 MTPA of wire ropes.

In view of the new facility, do you foresee a surge in demand for wire rope? If so, what are the reasons that will trigger this demand?

There is a huge replacement market that is ever growing. Wire rope is a consumable product of use in various applications. That gives it an edge and is therefore attractive as an engineering product. To elaborate about the various sectors that we cater to, we have a strong presence in the oil and gas segment with products that meet the needs of offshore exploration drilling rigs, offshore winches, offshore cranes, land-based exploration drilling rigs and oil and gas well servicing. For mining, our highly diversified product range includes hoist ropes, balance wire ropes, haulage wire ropes, guide and rubbing wire ropes, conveyor wire ropes, electric wire rope hoist, drag-line wire rope, drag ropes and shovel hoist wire ropes.

For the segment of engineered structural support systems, we produce ropes for suspension bridges, roof structures, architectural footbridges, glass walls and other construction activities. We are also a leading supplier to the crane and lifting industry with such products as telescopic mobile crane ropes, container handling crane wire ropes, mobile lattice boom crane wire ropes, ship to shore container crane rope, compacted wire ropes, swaged ropes, four stranded ropes, overhead hoist/gantry crane ropes, bulk unloader crane ropes, non-rotating ropes, ladle crane and piling crane wire ropes, industrial wire ropes, offshore winch ropes, tower crane wire ropes, offshore crane ropes, dockside crane ropes, mobile harbour crane wire ropes, floating crane wire ropes and ship lift ropes.

We also cater to the marine industry with products that include combination ropes, trawl warps, purse wires, harbour, escort and ocean towing wires. In fact, BWR is a leading supplier of wire rope for the shipping industry in India. We also supply a range of elevator wire ropes, governor ropes and hoist ropes that are flexible and with excellent grip properties that allow for smooth movement of rope over the pulley. The elevator wire ropes make use of thicker wires for the outermost strands which helps overcome cyclic stress created due to continuous rolling and unrolling of the rope over the pulley. Our elevator wire rope products are rigorously tested at our in-house testing centres and meet the highest standards of safety. We are proud to have a clientele comprising globally renowned elevator companies for our wide range of elevator ropes.

What is the export status of the company?

BWR has an outstanding order book of Rs 408.2 million out of which Rs 180 million are for exports. The company exports its products to Australia, the Indian sub–continent, the Middle East, Nepal, New Zealand, UK, US, Singapore, South Africa and Vietnam.

What is the size of the wire rope market in India? What are the factors that will expand the market size?

There is no formal report on the actual size of the wire rope market in India. However, it is estimated to be upwards of 1,50,000 metric tons.

Will the government’s Smart Cities project help the company in any way?

With the introduction of digitalization, the number of smart cities in India is increasing. These cities result in cost efficiencies, enhance the implementation of technology and lead to stronger infrastructure, all of which improves the quality of life of the citizens. Wire rope being a product that is critical to infrastructure development, the project will certainly benefit the company in a big way.

How is the new facility state-of-the-art in terms of technologies?

The company has installed the latest technology and high-speed machines imported from Germany, UK and South Korea, thereby making the product much more superior.

Is the company working on any research and development to enhance its product portfolio?

The company has a dedicated, efficient and high-performance team dedicated to work on innovations, developments and strategies in the wire rope industry in order to maintain the right product portfolio.

Could you name a few of your leading clients?

Some of our leading clients include public sector units such as Indian Railways, Indian Army, SCIL, NCL as well as most of the leading Indian corporate houses.

Are imports from China impacting your company’s sales?

In fact, it is the other way round. Our company will be exporting its various products to China. This is the confidence level that we have at BWR and it is our contribution to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s campaign of Make in India.

Are there any issues in this sector that you would like the government to take a serious note of?

The Make in India initiative of the government has been a wonderful move towards strengthening Indian industry but I think our current generation of entrepreneurs needs more motivation in terms of global exposures and connections to become global manufacturers. This gap will need to be focused on to make the country a leading manufacturing nation.

– HUNED CONTRACTOR