Steel Strips Wheels, which manufactures wheel rims for automobiles, has a market share of about 15 per cent in the passenger car segment and over 70 per cent in the two-wheelers segment. Riding on the auto boom since late 2009, the stock has returned 167 per cent over the last year. Thanks to the growing demand, the company has expanded its existing supplies to the margin accretive tractors and commercial vehicles segment. It is increasing capacity at its Chennai plant and has commissioned a unit at Jamshedpur for supplying to LCVs/HCVs from Tata Motors.
During this one year period, the company has also won export orders, the latest being an order worth $9 million for Peugeot's plants in Europe. It has also won business from BMW and Audi last year and is catering to Renault in Brazil and Russia. The company has commenced sales to the after-markets in Europe, where pricing power is better than in sale to OEMs. It has recently sold a 5.88 per cent stake to Sumitomo Metal Industries of Japan at Rs 520 per share. This tie-up will help them develop high tensile steel wheels which would improve fuel efficiency by reducing wheel weight.
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