Wheels India mulls rolling out two-wheeler wheels

Automobile wheel maker Wheels India Ltd is looking at rolling out wheels for two-wheelers as well as giant-sized wheels for 120 ton dumpers used in mines, said a top company official.

The company will also invest Rs.70 crore towards implementing processes that cuts costs, development of new products and expanding forged wheels capacity.

"We are close to signing some orders for supplying wheels to some two wheeler makers. This is a step towards utilising our capacity better," managing director Srivats Ram told reporters here on Monday.

According to him, the wheels for two wheelers would be like the ones for passenger cars and not the one with multiple spokes.

Ram said the company has developed wheels for 120 ton dumpers and will be seeding the overseas market with that.

"Currently we make wheels for dumpers up to 100 ton," he said.

Wheels India will also start making lift axles this year onwards for some automobile makers in technical collaboration with a Turkish company.

Looking ahead, Ram said the company is looking single digit growth during 2015-16 as the markets are yet to improve.

The company closed 2014-15 with a revenue of Rs.1,980 crore a growth of nine percent over 2013-14.

Wheels India logged a net profit of Rs.29.74 crore last year up from Rs.28.41 crore posted during 2013-14.

Ram said the tractor market witnessed a negative growth last year though the medium and heavy commercial vehicles segment recovered.

The margins in selling tractor wheels are high and it was impacted while the increased sales of wheels for commercial vehicles did not contribute much to the bottom line, he said.

In the car market, the steel wheel segment suffered a five percent fall while the forged aluminium wheels segment in which Wheels India is absent logged growth.

According to Ram, the company is not seriously looking at the forged aluminium wheels segment as the margins are low.

Queried about the lower net profit during the last quarter of the previous year, Ram said due to exchange rate changes, the company had to reduce its selling rates.

The fourth quarter saw the company's net profit down to Rs.6.76 crore from Rs.8.8 crore logged during the corresponding period of the previous year.

The company board has recommended a dividend of Rs.4.50 per share.