CHENNAI: The strong double-digit growth in its air suspension business in FY26 was driven by higher content per vehicle, growing intercity transport, AC sleeper coaches, upgradation of fleet by STUs (state transport undertakings) and growing penetration of EVs, Srivats Ram, chairman and managing director, Wheels India Ltd told the shareholders at the company’s 67th Annual General Meeting.
“We continue to invest in the alloy wheels segment and will strive for higher volumes in the coming years”, Srivats said on the prospects in the alloy wheels segment.
Srivats was positive of growth in the component businesses catering to the wind mill industry this year. He said that business grew by 14 per cent last year driven by new businesses from the offshore segment. “We are likely to see growth both in India and overseas markets. In addition, we continue to invest in and grow the business of machining of large castings for this sector”, he said.
The company’s subsidiary WIL Car Wheels Ltd saw decent growth and improved its profitability on the basis of increased volumes, higher capacity utilisation and operational cost improvements. He said this is likely to continue this year.
He struck a note of caution citing inflation concerns on commodity prices due to the West Asia crisis but was hopeful of the prices stablising as the year progressed. Answering shareholder queries, Srivats said the company is planning a capex of around Rs 300 crore this year that will go towards tractor, windmill, hydraulic cylinders and air suspension segments.
He said the company would like to grow its construction equipment and agri tractor businesses globally.
To another question on the growth strategy, Srivats said, “We are looking to ramp up machining of large castings. The cast aluminum business is on a low base currently and we have been able to get new businesses from a number of Indian OEMs. Hydraulic cylinder is a small business at the moment but has the potential to grow quite a bit and we are looking at expanding this business. Air suspension has grown well last year and we are hopeful of continuing the growth momentum in this segment.”
The company had introduced around 250 new products. Wheels India registered a net profit of Rs 139 crore last year on revenues of Rs 5,124 crore.