Started 3 decades ago, Bhushan Tubes Private Limited, has a current presence in 5 Indian cities namely Delhi, Ghaziabad (UP), Kochi (Kerala), Mumbai (Maharashtra), Rourkela (Odisha). It is envisioning expanding its footprint to overseas markets starting from the Middle-East. Its growth ambition is reflected in their upcoming state of the art storage yards at Ghaziabad and Nagothane locations to increase storage capacity to over 12,000 metric tons to meet evolving demands of the market. With a diverse product portfolio encompassing products like MS ERW pipes, galvanized pipes, seamless pipes and more, the company is trying to achieve a remarkable sales level of 1,25,000 metric tons annually and reach a revenue level of INR 1000 crores for FY 23-24. In a recent interaction with Tube & Pipe India, Mr. Gaurav Mittal, Managing Director, Bhushan Tubes Private Limited, discussed the company’s business journey, warehouse capacities, new and upcoming developments, product portfolio and business roadmap.
Tube & Pipe India: Please share Bhushan Tubes’ journey and major milestones.
Gaurav Mittal: Bhushan Tubes started its journey almost 3 decades ago under the leadership of its visionary founder Director and Chairman Shri Bharat Bhushan Mittal from scratch with no other aim but to establish a respectable name in the pipe and tube industry following the path of principles, sheer hard work and determination. He never let his humble beginning come in the way of his dreams or limit his aspiration of achievement. The journey started from a modest office in the heart of old Delhi, also known as the steel market, with a handful of highly efficient and capable minds and never looked back ever since. The 1st major milestone came when we expanded our network of sales office and warehouse to Ghaziabad (U.P) and then kept growing to Kochi (Kerala), Mumbai (Maharashtra), Rourkela (Odisha).
Proudly we have very recently been honoured with the prestigious award of being the “highest lifters of ERW and seamless pipes and tubes on all India basis” by the DP Jindal Group which comprises of Jindal Pipes Ltd. and Maharashtra Seamless Ltd.
TPI: Please elaborate on your warehousing capacities and their locations.
GM: Bhushan Tubes takes pride in its robust and enviable network of sales offices and strategically located warehouses spread across the length and breadth of the country. Delhi serves as the corporate office, along with multiple warehouses in Delhi region with a storage capacity of more than 2,000 metric tons. Ghaziabad (U.P) warehouse has a current capacity of 1,000 metric tons which will get further scaled to 3,500 metric tons as another state of the art warehousing facility complying to the EIL and ISO standards is expected to be ready by end of CY 2023. Kochi (Kerala) has a capacity of 300 metric tons and Rourkela (Odisha) of 1,000 metric tons. Mumbai (Maharashtra) again having multiple storage yards with a current combined capacity of 1,500-2,000 metric tons which will get further boosted to 5,000 metric tons with another highly sophisticated self-sufficient facility coming up at Nagothane (Raigad, Maharashtra) along with its own micro QC lab for at hand inspection and testing processes. These expansions will take our storage capacity to more than 12,000 metric tons, helping us provide expertise and the fastest solutions to our extremely valuable customers.
TPI: Please shed light on your market footprint and USP.
GM: As an organisation we have always envisaged the idea that, “the day we stop growing is the very day we start shrinking” and following this mantra we have always aimed to keep expanding our presence and footprint in this vast nation full of opportunities waiting to be explored. Typically freight factor has been a very major cost component for our product which most of the times decides our viability and competitiveness in any project. Basing this, we have always aimed to move closer to the source and origin of our product to counter this factor and this has given us tremendous impetus. With current presence in 5 major states, our aim is to take it further up, thus providing genuine and premium quality products to our customers with the fastest delivery time at the most competitive prices and striving to achieve the highest levels of customer satisfaction.
Our USP has been to provide complete piping solutions to our valuable customers under one roof catering to MS ERW pipes ranging from 15 mm to 500 mm dia, galvanized pipes ranging from 15 mm to 600 mm dia, seamless pipes ranging from 15 mm to 500 mm dia, large diameter spiral welded pipes (SAW) ranging from 500 mm to 3500 mm dia and premium products like boiler tubes, air heater and exchanger tubes, alloy steel pipes and tubes. What makes us highly trustable and a preferred option among our customers is the fact that we do not stock or deal in any kind of Chinese pipes and thus our clients are always assured of premium Indian branded products at all times. We have an on-site and off-site option to provide various types of specialised coatings like 3LPE coating, epoxy coating, aluminium painting, polyurethane coating, coal tar tape wrapping, enamel based coating, food grade epoxy coating. We also take pride in having executed projects with a critical level of pipe nesting of up to 4 different diameter pipes being put into each other to negate the high volume and low weight concern thereby giving our customers unmatchable freight benefits.
TPI: Which major market segments are among your clientele?
GM: Taking cue from the diverse presence, our customer base also follows the same pattern as we cater to the piping demands of wide range of industries like sugar industry, paper mills, chemical mills, automobile industry, power plants, fire fighting contractors, turnkey contractors, HVAC, oil and gas, boiler manufacturers, water and irrigation. We feel proud to be trusted channel partners for not only major pipe manufacturers in the country but also leading players of these various industry segments who place their trust in us for their prestigious and reputed project requirements.
TPI: As one of the nation’s major distributors, how do you handle the turbulence of demand-supply trends?
GM: Personally I come across this point of discussion at various levels and forums, and honestly this very characteristic is what defines the steel industry at best and if one can master the art of over-riding this turbulence, then no storm can take them out. Ever since covid struck, such bouts of turbulence have become more frequent and extreme and so we have learnt not only to live with it but to turn it into our strength rather than a weakness. Being nation’s one of the largest pipe distributors, we are always supposed to maintain sufficient levels of inventory at all our locations so that any abnormal supply-demand imbalance can be overridden maintaining continuous and smooth flow of supplies at all times. We also have forecasting tools to help us assess seasonal changes in demand and supply patterns, sometimes even specific to particular markets wherein we adjust our inventory levels accordingly.
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TPI: What is your company’s business roadmap and market strategy?
GM: Our main objective right now is to oversee the completion, and initiating the full-fledged functioning of our upcoming state of the art storage yards at Ghaziabad and Nagothane locations which will give a big boost to our current capacity, subsequent to which we will be targeting to achieve sales level of 1,25,000 metric tons annually. The strategy going forward is to focus on developing sales in regions like MP, Rajasthan, eastern states like Orissa, Assam where our current penetration is not up to the desired levels. We are also actively looking at exploring overseas markets which have huge potential still untapped by us.
“We have grossed the sales tonnage of 1,00,000 metric tons in FY 2022-23.”
TPI: Can you share with us your observations on key market trends in the Indian tubes and pipes market?
GM: Based on current trends and outlook, I strongly feel the need for modernised ERW and SAW pipe manufacturing plants in the eastern part of the country, specially keeping in view the government’s impetus and focus on economic and infrastructure growth in that region. Moreover despite us being the 2nd highest steel producing country in the world after China, we are still highly focussed and concentrated on producing basic category and grades of welded as well as seamless pipes and tubes.
There are very few handful facilities that too with negligible production capacity which produces API grades pipes beyond X60 or even PSL-2 for that matter. Alloy steel seamless speciality grades like P-5, P-91 are still a rarity, however looking at the pace at which global giants are shifting their focus from China to India, we really need to upgrade our thought process as well as the manufacturing capabilities.
TPI: Have there been any recent developments at your company, if so kindly share them with us.
GM: Proudly we have very recently been honoured with the prestigious award of being the “highest lifters of ERW and seamless pipes and tubes on all India basis” by the DP Jindal Group which comprises of Jindal Pipes Ltd. and Maharashtra Seamless Ltd. We have also grossed the sales tonnage of 1,00,000 metric tons in FY 2022-23.
TPI: What are your vision and plans for your company’s future?
GM: We envision to expand our footprints and presence to overseas markets starting from the Middle-East which has been actively on our business development radar and expect it to materialise soon. We are also challenging ourselves to scale the ambitious target revenues of INR 1,000 Cr. for the FY 2023-24 from domestic sales.
