We see exponential growth in critical manufacturing

Q. You are a name to reckon with in the field of Hi-Tech Manufacturing. What exactly is your niche?

Walchandnagar Industries Ltd (WIL) is one of the very few diversified heavy engineering conglomerates in India. Today WIL’s niche is in manufacturing and supply of critical components for strategic sectors – Defence, Aerospace, Missiles, Nuclear and Gearboxes. WIL’s USP is the fact that it has a long and established record of successfully delivering diverse equipment ranging from weapon systems, launchers, missile sub-assemblies, core nuclear reactor equipment (Calandria, Heat Exchangers, Support Tank, etc), motor-casings for ISRO’s PSLV and GSLV launch vehicles and marine gearboxes for Indian Navy ships and submarines. Some of our marquee customers include ISRO, NPCIL, DRDO/DRDL, Indian Navy, ATVP, etc. A versatile manufacturing facility at Walchandnagar (130 km from Pune), established expertise in fabrication and machining of exotic materials as well as a well-trained and experienced set of people (management staff and operatives) are our core strengths.

Q. What are the product/technological innovations you have showcased recently?

Technology and manufacturing process related innovations are a part of our everyday existence. There have been numerous innovations across many of our current offerings – not necessarily in terms of product design (as most of the equipment are made-to-design) but more from the manufacturing process perspective – development of niche tooling for critical welding needs of missile sub-assemblies, development of proprietary welding techniques for exotic materials like Ti Alloys, achieving DIN-1 standard in gear grinding operation, etc. are some of the successful innovations at WIL.

Q. Would you like to share any differentiated offer you could make to end users with tangible benefits?

While our core business clientele is of a repeat nature owing to our long legacy of partnership with them, certain key offerings which may be of interest to potentially new customers are as follows:
Versatile fabrication capabilities to cater to a host of sectors – process equipment (including oil & gas, petrochemicals and chemicals), earth moving equipment, materials handling equipment, railways, etc.

WIL has a 56 acre piece of land along the waterfront at Dahej in Gujarat. This facility is ideally suited for fabrication of heavy pieces of equipment – some of which have been mentioned above. With this and also the land available at Walchandnagar (our plant location), it is possible for WIL to ramp up in heavy engineering sectors like defence and nuclear.

Gearboxes across wide range of industrial applications – general engineering, cement, sugar, hydel, railways, etc. WIL has also recently expanded its footprint in the marine gearboxes market to cover “Offshore Patrol Vessel” gearboxes for the Indian Coast Guard as well.
Centrifugal machines (both batch type and continuous type) primarily for the sugar industry. However these machines also can be tailor-made to suit the requirements of chemicals, agro-processing industries, etc..
WIL also has two product divisions – a foundry at Satara in Maharashtra and an instrumentation division (making temperature and pressure gauges) at Dharwad in Karnataka. Our foundry specializes in making heavy castings (both cast iron and SG iron) upto 12 tons – ideally suited for sectors like machine tools, earth moving equipment, materials handling, automobiles, etc.

Q. Have you planned any customer engagement programs or expansion plans as part of your growth strategy?
Customer engagement (especially with our strategic customers) is an on-going process. This keeps happening through regular interactions. Recently we had the Chairman & MD of Bharat Dynamics Ltd., Mr. V. Udaya Bhaskar visiting our plant to flag off the 600th set of integrated missile sub-assembly. We regularly have such interactions with very senior level delegations from our major customers.

As far as expansion plans are concerned, WIL has recently completed a CAPEX cycle to shore up capacity in aerospace manufacturing. Plans are afoot to do the same for its missile sub-assembly manufacturing operations. In fact in practically all segments of our strategic businesses including nuclear plant equipment, defence and gearboxes, we see scope for expansion. The logic is that we see exponential growth in these businesses in the years ahead – indigenization of defence supplies, indigenous NPPs, increase in launch frequency of satellites, etc. are some key policies of the government which clearly point to this trend. Ours being a capital intensive industry, the final decision to selectively invest in CAPEX would ultimately hinge upon fructification of actual orders of which we are quite hopeful. Our current order book of INR 970 Crore with 60% of it comprising strategic businesses gives us confidence.

Q. What’s the shape of things to come in your field which would be exciting and trendsetting?

Some key pointers towards development/action in our fields of operations are:

• Increased spending on defence preparedness / thrust on indigenization
• Overall increased spending on infrastructure leading to greater demand for capital goods
• ISRO’s ambitious plans to increase the launches per year
• Building of 10 indigenous Nuclear Power Plants (NPP) in India
• Revival of sugar industry in key markets like Uttar Pradesh
• New technologies on the horizon – composite materials, additive manufacturing, internet of things (IOT), etc.