Steel Strips and Wheels Ltd was founded in 1991 and is a leader in the business of designing and manufacture of automotive alloy and steel wheels. It caters to a wide range of domestic and global automobile makers with the highest quality standards. The company is based out of Chandigarh with five manufacturing facilities situated at the Dappar (Punjab) , Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Saraikela and Jamshedpur in Jharkhand, Mehsana and Bhuj in Gujarat. These plants have a combined manufacturing capacity of around 20 million wheels per annum. The company posted its highest ever yearly net revenue of Rs 4429 crores and highest ever yearly EBITDA of Rs 500 crores for FY2025. The total revenue for FY25 is divided between the steel wheel business contributing Rs 2292 crores with a share of 68% , while the alloy wheel business segment stood at 32% and contributing to Rs 1437 crores . Steel Strips and Wheels has strategic partnerships with Tata Steel Limited and Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal Corporation, Japan holding a 6.9% and 5.4% equity stake respectively in the company. The first quarter of FY2026 has been overall good for the company with its top line recording a robust 15% year on year growth. The gross profit also registered a strong increase reflecting healthy operating momentum. The EBITDA stood at Rs 125 crores , marking a 6.1% year on year growth and profit after tax increasing from Rs 46 crores to Rs 50 crores representing a 8% growth on a year on year basis. EBITDA margins witnessed a marginal decline during Q1FY26 primarily due to increase in raw material prices and higher spend on spares, consumables and repair and maintenance. Similarly, depreciation costs also rose during the aforesaid quarter largely due to the elevated capital expenditure undertaken to expand the capacity in the alloy wheel business over the last few years. There is also turbulence happening in Europe in regard to the steel wheel business in terms of cost not being advantageous for European manufacturers. Herein , Steel Strips and Wheels expects themselves to be big beneficiaries with being able to meet the stringent quality and engineering expectations of the original equipment manufacturers across Europe and South America. Export revenue rose sharply by 30% during the quarter increasing from Rs 123 crores to Rs 160 crores delivering an outstanding performance across both the steel and alloy wheel segments. Within the alloy wheel segment of the passenger car category , the performance was exceptional contributing 35% of the overall revenue as against 29% for the same quarter of the last fiscal year. The company is extremely bullish and expect the positive momentum to continue in the future going forward. From the tariff point of view , Steel Strips and Wheels had close to 70% export turnover to the US during 2023-24 , 65% during 2024-25 and down to 52% in the current financial year . This is a derisking strategy adopted by the company with not being too over dependent in one geography for its exports and to expand in countries like Europe and South America .
The growth drivers for the company in the future is of shifting the business towards high margin segments, development of robotic automated operation process to reduce costs, diversify into aluminium products portfolio and strengthen the balance sheet improving return on capital employed and return on equity.
The Steel Strips and Wheels Ltd stock is currently quoting at Rs 245 on the bourses and fund managers and analysts are seriously looking at the company as a value and attractive portfolio buy for long term superlative gains .
