Last one year
The last year has been quite sluggish for the Indian economy. This has taken its toll on the manufacturing sector of our country as well. Out of the lot, the main hit was taken by the automotive industry to which we are a main supplier.
When the automotive industry feels the crunch, so do we. But this lean period has given us time to retrospect and make changes in the way things have been done for many years. Now, through process rationalisation and improved machinery we have further strengthened our production processes and are confident of facing the challenges that this new financial year brings us.
Performance vis-à-vis the overall market
Due to high inflation and currency rate fluctuation, our cost of raw material went up and the automotive industry, one of our major customers, also went through a slowdown. This meant their plants were running at lower capacities and thus cutting tools were low on demand. Thus, our costs went up and demand for cutting tools came down. In all, it wasn't a very promising year for the industry.
I would rate our performance comparable to our competitors. The entire cutting tool industry went through a tough period. We expect the coming years to be better than what we had been through. We are also better equipped now to take on newer challenges.
Customer segments
We get most of our business from the automotive industry. About 75 percent of our sales come from this sector. We are a major supplier to Hyundai Motocorp, Tata Motors, Maruti, Ashok Leyland and their vendors.
We are also looking at new sectors like energy and oil transport, turbine blade manufacturing and bearing manufacturers for whom we have specialised tools to meet the specific needs of these segments. Apart from that, to provide customer specific and situation specific solutions we have also formed a team who will service only these specially identified segments.
Addressing customer needs
We have always been at the forefront of innovative solutions. Some of our products like the MaxiMill HFC or High Feed Cutters for milling application with XDLT and XOLT inserts that can negotiate very high feed rates and loads. Or the A273 milling cutter with OAKU inserts that have 16 cutting edges, which reduces tooling cost considerably.
Another innovation that is very advantageous for our customers is our C900 drill cutter with SCLT inserts which too has the ability to take on high feeds and depth of cuts.
These products are technologically advanced and have been performing well at our customers' shop floors. We are keeping on innovating and researching for ways to improve upon our existing product range and also to come up with newer and better solutions.
