Delhi-based Steelbird International, an automotive filter manufacturing firm is now numerous new applied sciences, together with the EV house. It is wanting “forming some partnerships and targeting growth for non-Internal Combustion Engine products for growth.”
Manav Kapur, ED, Steelbird International tells Express Mobility that it has “been talking to a lot of companies from across the globe on a lot of EV components and also on products which are not exactly EV specific but are components which will be enhanced in the EV space.”
To put issues into perspective, Steelbird International is a producer of automotive filters, rubber elements, helmets and plastic parts amongst others. It was on the Auto Expo 2020, it had launched a brand new vary of tyres, which it claims was particularly developed for the electrical three-wheeler phase. But sadly, the corporate’s expectations within the phase didn’t meet the targt.
Kapur says, “We haven’t seen a lot of the kind of growth we’ve seen in the other sectors (read product portfolio). We haven’t seen that kind of growth in tyres for us because the industry generally has more of overcapacity now. That’s why the market is very competitive for us, and the major growth has come from the aftermarket space.”
While Kapur doesn’t reveal the precise quantum of development for the corporate, he says its total manufacturing has been within the vary of 80-90 p.c capability utilisation. “Probably, we are one of the very few companies who actually added capacity during the pandemic. We added machines and set-up a new plant as well in Pantnagar.”
It was in March, that the corporate introduced a partnership with TVS Auto Bangaldesh to set-up a producing facility for automotive filters within the neighbouring nation. The vary of auto filters might be manufactured for all sorts of cars – two- three-wheelers, passenger automobiles, tractors and industrial autos. In reality, Kapur is bullish on the operation and says that he expects “Rs 100 crore revenue in next three years just from the Bangladesh operation alone.”
On the opposite hand, Steelbird has been getting into new segments to up its worth addition providing for the automotive phase, as an illustration, its partnership with Isreal’s Cybellum Technologies, for superior cybersecurity options for the automotive business.
“We are looking at what are our core competencies and what is the need of the hour. For example, the cybersecurity solutions that we are providing is based on the new connected vehicle space shaping up in India. Most of the vehicles are going to be connected in future. And so as soon as you get the car connected, you’re vulnerable to the internet access. So that’s what we looked at. And we saw that there’s hardly anyone doing any cybersecurity in India for automotive applications. And we looked at what the best companies to look at and partnered Cybellum Technologies to bring the solutions to India.”
The Indian automotive aftermarket is pegged at greater than Rs 50,000 crore, no surprise that there are gamers massive and small attempting to seize a chunk of the demand.
“The larger players are getting aggressive and the smaller ones are having a tough time to fight them out. That’s what the trend has been. A lot of people have gone bust during the pandemic, especially small companies. They couldn’t keep it afloat for six months or eight months and the market was really down. The unorganised players are losing out and that’s where the sentiment is going back. If you look at it, there’s a lot of bad sentiment in the market. They are forced to wait. They’re not that good the way they were and that is coming primarily because the organised sector has suffered a lot and they were in masses. There are few companies who are scaled up, but a large number of companies are really small. That’s why the sentiment looks to be stronger on that side,” concludes an optimistic Kapur.
Source: www.financialexpress.com”