India's second-largest wire maker is doubling capacity, piloting steel cord to cut tire imports, and targeting 30-35% automotive revenue through localized high-performance products and strategic geographic expansion.
30 Sep 2025 | 7344 Views | By Shahkar Abidi
Bansal Wire Industries, India's second-largest steel wire manufacturer by volume, is making the automotive supply chain the centerpiece of its next phase of growth. The company has been manufacturing since 1985, but its focused entry into auto-grade wires only began around 2015–2016. In a decade, the automotive segment has grown ...
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Bansal Wire Industries, India's second-largest steel wire manufacturer by volume, is making the automotive supply chain the centerpiece of its next phase of growth. The company has been manufacturing since 1985, but its focused entry into auto-grade wires only began around 2015–2016. In a decade, the automotive segment has grown from contributing "almost nothing" to 20-25% of total revenue, and top management now wants that share to reach 30-35% of sales.
"So a big part of all of that is automotive for us. Automotive is our largest end user" noted Pranav Bansal who is the MD and CEO of the company.
For auto industry buyers, the pitch is timely. Vehicle makers and their suppliers are under pressure to localize critical components, improve durability, and reduce weight. Those demands cascade upstream to materials such as steel cord for tyres, bead wire, and high-performance spring and cable wires, the products Bansal is prioritizing.
Present Standing and Product Breadth
Bansal Wire Industries Ltd operates five manufacturing facilities, with Dadri as the largest single-location steel wire plant in India. The company’s portfolio spans stainless steel wires, high carbon steel wires, mild steel galvanised wires (low carbon steel wires), and specialty wires including tire bead wire, hose wire, and steel tire cord. That breadth has helped Bansal serve more than 5000 customers across sectors from aeronautics and agriculture to consumer durables, infrastructure, and general engineering. The automotive sector is among its largest end-users, taking everything from control cable wires and springs to welding wires, bead wire, and steel cord.
Scale and mix are showing up in the financials. In FY25 Revenue rose 42.2% Y-o-Y to Rs 3,507.17 crore. EBITDA increased 86.4% to Rs 278.21 crore, while profit after tax grew 94.5% to Rs 146.37 crore, reflecting efficiencies as volumes climb and the product mix shifts to higher-value categories.
A key enabler has been the public listing. The company successfully completed its Initial Public Offering (IPO) in 2024, The listing strengthened its capital structure, significantly reduced debt, and enhanced financial flexibility. The proceeds are being deployed toward strategic priorities such as the introducing the pilot project for specialty wire vertical without the need for significant additional capital beyond internal accruals and limited debt.
Capacity Surge for Auto-grade Demand
To meet rising orders, Bansal has nearly doubled installed capacity from 3.5 lakh tons to almost 6 lakh tons in the past 1 to 1.5 years, with plans to reach 7-7.5 lakh tons within the next year. The cornerstone is a major buildout at Dadri, Uttar Pradesh, billed as the largest wire facility in Asia. Strategically, Dadri sits close to the National Capital Region, home to a dense cluster of auto OEMs and Tier-1 suppliers, allowing faster logistics, tighter collaboration on approvals, and better responsiveness to program changes.
This expanded base is task-built for high-value automotive products such as steel cord and IHT/OHT wires. Steel cord, a reinforcement material embedded in radial tyres, has been a persistent import gap. For the sake of context, specialized steel cord, vital for tyres with 60-65% of domestic demand met by imports. Bansal is piloting 20,000 tons and expects to scale to 200,000 tons, pending customer approvals that typically require rigorous testing and long validation cycles.
Bead wire, another tyre input, is in the plan as a complementary product to cord. Also coming are IHT (Induction Hardened & Tempered) and OHT (Oil Hardened & and Tempered) wires, which are alloy steel products designed for crucial suspension applications including the shocker in two-wheeler EVs to support lightweighting and durability. They are also used in engine and clutch applications. IHT wires are anticipated by the next quarter, with OHT wires expected by the third quarter or year-end.
Capex, Footprint, and Geographic Reach
The expansion is backed by aggressive investment. Bansal Wire's vision is supported by Rs 700-750 crores of capital expenditure over the next two years, and a total of Rs 2000-2500 crores planned over five to six years, with a significant portion earmarked for specialty wires such as steel cord and IHT/OHT.
" I think the majority of our CapEx in the next five to six years, we've already aligned for specialty so that we will be investing very heavily". "Other than that, I think geographical expansion in the current product mix will also keep on happening. We've already initiated the Gujarat facility. Going forward, we will also be looking at expanding in other geographies. This will give us a boost being near to the southern customers or eastern customers" Bansal added.
Today, North India accounts for 55-60% of Bansal’s sales, a concentration the company is moving to balance. The Sanand, Gujarat facility marks a strategic entry into the West, bringing the company nearer to vehicle and component hubs in that corridor. The roadmap includes deeper coverage in the East and South to shorten lead times, reduce freight volatility, and align production slots more closely with OEM schedules. Alongside automotive, Bansal is also growing a B2C presence in other industries, diversifying channels while increasing brand visibility.
Backward Integration for Supply Security
A critical building block is backward integration. As volumes rise and product specs tighten, wire makers depend on consistent-quality raw materials at competitive prices. Bansal is tackling this through an in-house facility at Sanand. The backward integration facility which is being set up in Sanand, Gujarat is designed to produce approximately 1.8 lakh tons of wire rods for internal consumption, with potential for further scalability. The goal is to reduce exposure to raw material swings, improve metallurgical consistency batch-to-batch, and accelerate development of higher-grade wires for critical applications, particularly in non-automotive segments where the company also sees value added opportunities.
Export Ambitions and the Aftermarket Lens
Exports currently contribute 10-15% of Bansal Wire's total revenues and are targeted to grow at 25-30% annually. The company emphasizes developed markets of Europe and the U.S. accounting for 75% of export sales precisely because of their stringent approval regimes and documented benchmarking. That qualification gauntlet, while time-consuming, can elevate process discipline and open doors to premium accounts. In export markets, 60% of products go directly to end-users and 40-45% through distributors, a split that helps manage both large program volumes and fragmented replacement demand.
On the domestic aftermarket, most wires flow through OEM channels, but control cables are a notable exception. Here, 40% of demand comes from the replacement market and 60% from OEMs, a balance that makes the segment more resilient to production swings and attractive for targeted product and channel investments.
Headwinds and Industry Context
The strategy also reflects global supply chain recalibration. The "China plus one" approach remains a factor in sourcing decisions. Still, challenges remain. Raw material availability at competitive prices is a persistent concern. Steel pricing in India remains higher than in many neighboring countries, which can affect export competitiveness and squeeze margins when global prices soften.
Despite that, Bansal argues that India is fundamentally competitive in manufacturing when products and plants achieve the right scale and specification discipline.