Daily Pour

Date: 23/07/2025   Issue No.: 3724/24-25

Compiled By: Aarti Ghag, Sr. Officer - WR

B. Ramchandran, Chennai

IIF News

Dear All,

IIF - Western Region & Greater Mumbai Chapter jointly organizing Eklavya Project along with Shree L R Tiwari College of Engineering.

 

Thought of the Day

News Letter Supported By

Today's Top Raw Materials Headlines

*** India: Melting scrap prices remain unchanged d-o-d in Alang

*** India: Big Mint's scrap index holds steady d-o-d amid muted finished steel demand

*** India: Ferro silicon prices inch down w-o-w on weak demand

*** India: Silico manganese export prices remain supported in recent deals amid hike in global ore tags

*** India: Power disconnected from Meghalaya's ferro silicon units amid tariff arrears

*** India: Vedanta-FACOR to conduct ferro chrome auction on 23 Jul'25

*** India: Bids edge up in SAIL-RSP's latest pig iron auction

*** India's steel exports drop 25% y-o-y in H1CY'25; imports slide 14%

Raw Material News

India: Melting scrap prices remain unchanged d-o-d in Alang

Ship-breaking melting scrap prices in Alang, Gujarat, remained stable d-o-d on 22 Jul'25. According to BigMint's assessment, HMS (80:20) prices were at INR 31,600/t ($366/t) ex-yard. Average trade activity was observed for semi-finished and finished steel during yesterday's trading session in the region. Additionally, moderate buying inquiries for scrap by Bhavnagar-based IF steel mills prompted suppliers to keep their offers stable today.

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India: Bids edge up in SAIL-RSP's latest pig iron auction

SAILs Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) conducted an auction on 22 Jul'25 for 2,500 t of steel-grade pig iron in which the entire quantity was booked at an average price of INR 32,450/t exw - an increase of INR 250/t compared to the previous auction on 11 Jul in which the total quantity of 3,500 t was sold at INR 32,200/t exw.

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India: Power disconnected from Meghalaya's ferro silicon units amid tariff arrears

The Meghalaya Power Distribution Corporation Limited has initiated widespread power cuts across various industrial plants (including all ferro silicon units) due to unpaid tariff difference dues, as per a recent notice. The dues, pending for over six months, have caused financial strain on the corporation, which has halted power supply until the companies settle payments and initiate reconnection.

Industry News

ACE Ltd Eyes Doubling Revenue by FY30 with Diversified Play Across Infra, Agri, Exports and Defence
A key pillar of ACE’s growth strategy is its sharpened focus on backhoe loaders, a segment long dominated by JCB India, where it currently holds a modest 3% market share.
Action Construction Equipment Ltd. (ACE), the Faridabad-headquartered construction and material handling equipment manufacturer, is charting a focused and multi-pronged roadmap to double its revenues to Rs 6,000–6,300 crore by financial year 2030, a senior official told Autocar Professional.
At the core of its strategy is a deliberate pivot to derisk its heavy dependence on the infrastructure sector and expand its footprint in exports, agriculture, and defence—areas seen as key to delivering sustainable, long-term growth.
With a dominant position in the pick-and-carry crane segment where it commands a 63% market share, ACE has consistently grown even amid sectoral headwinds. The company closed 2024-25 with revenues of Rs 3,427 crore, up from Rs 2,990 crore in 2023-24, defying a broader slowdown in capital expenditure and tepid construction activity.
ACE’s forward-looking strategy combines conservative financial management with calculated risk-taking in new segments. Its aggressive push into backhoe loaders, ambition to double exports, expansion of the defence and agriculture verticals, and capacity augmentation positions the company to meet and potentially exceed its 2029-30 revenue target.
Having grown at a CAGR of approximately 14% over the last few years, the company states it is well-positioned to double revenues every three to four years.
Backhoe Loaders: ACE’s Big Infra Push
A critical piece in ACE’s growth puzzle is its increased focus on backhoe loaders, a segment historically dominated by JCB India. Though it currently holds a modest 3% market share, ACE has overhauled its product offering in the past two years and started making inroads in both domestic and export markets.
“In the backhoe loader segment, we have started inching up. We want to be at 7–10% in the coming years,” said Vyom Agarwal, President, ACE Ltd. “But in order to make that happen, we have diversified beyond just infrastructure,” he said.
He added that the company is confident of selling at least 4,000 backhoe loaders annually in the medium term.
This growth is backed by continuous product upgrades and export readiness—particularly relevant as India moved to stringent CEV-5 emission norms in January, that align local equipment with global standards.
Exports: Gateway to New Growth
Exports and defence together currently contribute around 8–9% to ACE’s overall revenue, but the company is determined to more than double this share to 15–20% by the end of the decade. Its products are already present in Southeast Asia, Africa, Latin America, and parts of the CIS region, including Ukraine and Russia.
“With the introduction of the world’s best emission norms in India, we are confident that Indian-made equipment can now enter more advanced markets,” said Agarwal.
Despite the long gestation period export push is expected to become a major buffer against the volatility in the domestic infrastructure cycle, a risk ACE is proactively mitigating by expanding into multi-sector opportunities.
Building Agriculture and Defence Verticals
ACE’s foray into agriculture is centered around tractors and harvesters. Although the company has a quality product portfolio, network reach and distribution remain constraints.
“The product is good, what we need now is to be aggressive on the network,” said Agarwal. Agriculture currently accounts for about 7% of ACE’s business, but the potential for higher penetration remains significant given the size and scale of the Indian agri-equipment market.
In the defence space, too, gestation period is too long. However, ACE currently services a small portion of its business through lorry loaders, forklift, tractors, terrain forklift, and telehandlers. The company is aiming to strengthen this vertical further, especially in light of the Indian government’s ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ push and increased allocation towards capital procurement in the defence budget.
In February, the company secured a Rs 420 crore contract from the Ministry of Defence to supply 1,121 Rough Terrain Forklift Trucks (RTFLTs).
Manufacturing and Capacity Expansion
ACE operates from an integrated industrial park spread across 95–100 acres in Faridabad, with an annual manufacturing capacity of 27,000 units — including 13,500 cranes, 9,000 agriculture machines, 2,700 material handling units, and 1,800 units of construction equipment.
To support future growth, ACE is in the process of acquiring more land around its existing facility and a small parcel in Madhya Pradesh, strategically located near an industrial hub, to expand manufacturing capacity and improve supply chain efficiencies. ACE’s current customer base is well-diversified across manufacturing, infrastructure, logistics, agriculture, and real estate.
Manufacturing and logistics together account for 45% of end-user demand, followed by infrastructure (35%), real estate (13%) and agriculture (7%). This diverse exposure provides a natural hedge against sectoral downturns, allowing the company to maintain steady performance even when certain sectors underperform.
“We are consciously diversifying, not just product-wise but also customer-wise,” said Agarwal. “That’s how we ensure we’re not overly dependent on any one vertical.”
As India looks to ramp up infrastructure investments and domestic manufacturing under government-led initiatives, ACE appears poised to ride the next wave of growth on firmer, broader ground than ever before.

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CIE Automotive India Reports Mixed Q2 Results with Strong Domestic Growth Offset by European Challenges
Company achieves 7% revenue growth in India operations while European segment faces margin pressure from restructuring costs and market decline.
CIE Automotive India Limited reported consolidated sales of ₹22,906 million for the second quarter of 2025, representing a 4% increase compared to the same period last year. However, the company's EBITDA margin declined to 15.7% from 17.7% in Q2 2024, primarily due to restructuring costs in its European operations.
The automotive components manufacturer's Indian operations demonstrated robust performance, with sales rising 7% to ₹14,591 million in Q2 2025. The India segment maintained an EBITDA margin of 17.5%, down slightly from 18.4% in the previous year. The company noted that its growth exceeded the weighted average market growth of approximately 5% in India.
In contrast, CIE's European operations faced headwinds, with sales declining 1% to ₹8,315 million in Q2 2025. The European segment's EBITDA margin compressed significantly to 12.5% from 16.6% in the prior year quarter. The company attributed this decline to one-time restructuring costs at its Italian subsidiary Metalcastello, which impacted EBITDA by 2.4% of sales.
For the first half of 2025, consolidated sales decreased 1% to ₹44,868 million compared to the same period in 2024. The half-year EBITDA margin stood at 16.3%, down from 17.7% in H1 2024. Net profit for the six-month period was ₹4,099 million, an 8% decline from the previous year.
The company's balance sheet remained strong with net financial debt of ₹7,639 million as of June 30, 2025, compared to ₹12,022 million at the end of 2024. The net financial debt to EBITDA ratio improved to -0.52 from -0.81 at year-end 2024.
CIE Automotive India operates through multiple subsidiaries across India and Europe, manufacturing automotive components for various vehicle segments including passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles, tractors, and two-wheelers. The company serves as a supplier to major automotive manufacturers in both regions.
Indian automotive market data showed mixed performance across segments during Q2 2025. Light vehicles under 6 tons grew 3.2% year-over-year, while medium and heavy commercial vehicles increased 8.3%. The tractor segment recorded strong growth of 12.7%, while two-wheeler production remained nearly flat with 0.7% growth.
European automotive markets continued to face challenges, with light vehicle production declining 1.7% and medium and heavy commercial vehicle production falling 7.6% in Q2 2025 compared to the previous year.
The company paid a dividend of ₹7 per share totaling ₹2,656 million during the quarter, representing the final dividend for the financial year ended December 31, 2024. CIE's management indicated its focus remains on expanding Indian operations to offset the declining European market performance.

Life Style and Management

Tobacco plant may aid in treating diabetes, arthritis

Tobacco plants can be used to produce an anti-inflammatory protein that can have powerful therapeutic potential for treating conditions like Type-2 diabetes, stroke, dementia and arthritis, more effectively and at an affordable price, researchers say.
A team from the University of Western Ontario and Lawson Health Research Institute in Canada used tobacco plants to produce large quantities of a human protein called Interleukin 37, or IL-37 -- naturally produced in the human kidney in very small quantities.
"This protein is a master regulator of inflammation in the body, and has been shown in pre-clinical models to be effective in treating a whole host of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases," said Tony Jevnikar, Professor at Western.
"The human kidney produces IL-37, but not nearly enough to get us out of an inflammation injury."
While IL-37 has shown promise in animal models, it's use clinically has been limited because of the inability to produce it in large quantities at a price that is feasible clinically. Currently, it can be made in very small amounts using the bacteria E. coli, but at a very high cost.
That's where the tobacco plants come in and pave the way to provide treatments that are effective and affordable, according to the study published in the journal Plant Cell Reports.
"The plants offer the potential to produce pharmaceuticals in a way that is much more affordable than current methods," said Shengwu Ma, a scientist at Lawson.
"Tobacco is high-yield, and we can temporarily transform the plant so that we can begin making the protein of interest within two weeks."
The team is now investigating the effect that IL-37 has for preventing organ injury during transplantation. When an organ is removed for transplantation and then transferred to a recipient, inflammation occurs when the blood flow is restored to the organ.

Jokes All the Way......

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