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28 Stainlßss Steßl Focus 09/2014

At the very beginningof its business ac-tivity, Viraj was a

workplace for less than 150employees, and in 1991started its first meltingshop in the industrialarea of Tarapur nearMumbai. Init ial ly thecompany manufacturedutensil grade steel for thedomestic market, but italways kept its eye onthe international marketwhich was growing signi-ficantly.

To make international ex-pansion a possibility, in1995 Viraj started increas-

New section mill now commissioned

Viraj Profiles: one of

the largest Indian

exporters of stainless

long productsWithin the space of just a few years, Viraj Profiles Ltd has grown into one of theglobal leaders in the area of stainless steel long products. The company recentlyexplained to Stainlßss Steßl Focus how this came to pass, and where it sees theopportunities for the future.

world’s second largeststainless steel producer

products exported to morethan 1,300 customers inover 90 countries world-wide spread across 6 conti-nents.

One of the largestIndian exporters

Viraj is also one of the lar-gest exporters of stainlesssteel long products in In-dia. The organization’shighest quality productsare well known amongentrepreneurs working insteel, defence, construc-tion and structural build-ings, power, and the pe-trochemical and marineindustries.

wards quality and our zestfor technological upgrada-tion. Though Viraj is anIndian company, we havealways looked at the glo-bal scenario in order tokeep ourselves at par withthe global market stan-dards. Today our productsenjoy leadership positionin several product catego-ries across the globe.More than 90% of our to-tal products are alreadybeing exported to morethan 90 countries. One ofour biggest achievementscame our way in the year2008 when Viraj was ran-ked third largest producerof stainless steel long pro-ducts in the world. Andfrom then on there was nolooking back.”

He further added, “Our abi-lity to react quickly tomarket changes and cus-tomer requirements hasalways helped us to stayahead of our competitors.Also our integrated manu-facturing system, havingall the processes in-house, makes us less de-pendent on external fac-tors. Finally, quality iswhat characterises all ourproducts and today I can

ing its production capa-city, diversifying its pro-duct grades and productrange, and enhancing itsproduction processes.With what started as asmall induction furnace,Viraj Profiles Ltd has nowtransformed itself into the

with a capacity of 528,000tpy, a human resourcestrength of more than9,000 employees, and anannual turnover of overUS$1.5 billion. Todaythe company marks itsstrong presence amongstglobal competitors, with its

Asked by Stainlßss Steßl

Focus about the reasonsbehind this phenomenalgrowth of the company,Neeraj R Kochhar, CMD,Viraj Profiles answered: “Iattribute this success toour organizational values,and the commitment to-

Mr Neeraj R KochharCMD Viraj Profiles

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Stainlßss Steßl Focus 09/2014 29

proudly say that Viraj hascarved a niche for itselfbased solely on quality.”

Investing to become aglobal leader

Viraj has always kept itseyes set on the aim of

also heads the sales &marketing departmentcommented: “The deci-sion was taken in order towiden our product basketand to utilize the existingmanufacturing capabilitiesto the fullest possible. To-day, Viraj is one of the lar-

ges of 5.5mm to 39.5mm.Our wire rod mill has a pro-duction capacity of300,000 tpy”.

Main growth markets forbar products

As per the recent industryreport published by the In-dian Stainless Steel De-velopment Assn, Virajsaid, around 26% of totallong products productionis accounted for by brightbars. Mostly the bars areused in the automotivesector, pump manufactur-ing, railways, the defencesector, shaft manufactur-ing, the agricultural equip-ment manufacturing indus-try, the food processingindustry, the oil and petro-leum sector, and miningetc. Even under a conser-vative scenario, most ofthese industries are set tosee good growth rates inthe near future. Growth inthese industries will ulti-mately lead to growth indemand for bars and flan-

China dominates the worldproduction of stainlesssteel accounting foraround a 40% share. Itsstainless steel productionhas grown four times overthe last 6-7 years. How-ever, in line with global pro-duction, the Indian markethas also witnessed a heal-thy increase in its shareof the total pie. In the cur-rent scenario, India is ran-ked as the 4th largest pro-ducer of stainless steelafter China, Europe andJapan. In fact, the growthrate of Indian stainlesssteel production has beenhealthier than global pro-duction of the same.

Developments on the In-dian domestic market

“No doubt the Indian mar-ket has grown at a verygood rate in the past coup-le of years. However, atthe same time”, Viraj said,“we do realize that the po-tential for growth is hugeand there is still a long wayto go for India. If we lookat the trend of stainlesssteel consumption in Indiain the past couple of yearswe notice that the con-sumption of stainless steelhas actually increasedmultifold. According to re-cent industry reports, theconsumption of stainlesssteel in India has grownalmost 10 times in the last20 years. Some of themain sectors which haveled to this trend are infra-structural and architectu-ral applications like themodernization of airports,metro railways, moderni-zed bus shelters, stain-less steel wall claddings,household applicationslike stainless steel modu-lar kitchens, furniture etc.

Mrs Renu KochharMD Viraj Profiles

becoming a leading globalproducer of stainless steellong products. It is part ofthis vision that the compa-ny has been consistentlytapping new opportunitiesby increasing productioncapacity, diversifying in-vestments, and leveragingits core capabilities to ven-ture into new businesses.The decision to set up itsown wire rod mill was apart of the company’s for-ward integration plan.Renu Kochhar, managingdirector, Viraj Profiles, who

gest providers of the wi-dest range of stainlesssteel products under oneroof.

“Our wire rod division iswell equipped with a fullyautomatic wire rod millfrom Siemens Italy, andsolution annealing, softannealing and picklingplants with high end auto-mation facilities and pro-ven quality standards. Ourmanufacturing facility iscapable of producing wirerod in extensive size ran-

ges, as well as otherstainless steel products.

China: a significantcompetitor?

The world over, Viraj says,the stainless steel growthrate has surpassed allother major materials likealuminium, copper, carbonsteel, lead, zinc etc. Thecurrent global productionof stainless steel as perthe report published byISSF in 2012 is estimatedto be around 34m tonnes.

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30 Stainlßss Steßl Focus 09/2014

However, we do under-stand that India still has along way to go when com-pared with the global con-sumption of stainlesssteel.

“The potential growth ofstainless steel in India ishuge, considering the factthat the per capita con-sumption at 1.9 kg is muchlower than the global aver-age of 4.85 kg. But we aresure that in coming years,India will be consuming abigger chunk of the wholepie. Stainless steel is un-matched compared toother materials and canplay a very important rolein the sustainable develop-ment of Indian infrastruc-ture.”

More encouraging, Virajsays, is the fact that Go-vernment institutions havealso started realizing theimportance of using thiswonder material and itsbenefits in the long run. Arecent example would bethe application of stainlesssteel in bus shelters,railways, and building con-struction where the use ofthe material not only pro-vides sturdiness but alsosaves on maintenance andat the same time looksaesthetically sound.

“On a broader scale, as thestress on maintaining theenvironment is growingday by day and companiesare becoming more awareabout their responsibilitiestowards creating a greenerearth, what better optiondo we have than stainlesssteel which is a 100% re-cyclable material and longlasting and turns out to bevery cost effective consi-dering its low maintenance

and longevity. Even de-veloping countries are be-coming aware of this factand have started adoptingthis wonder material cal-led stainless steel in a bigway.

“However, in order to fullyexpand its production ca-pacity, the country needsto take care of certain is-sues like resistance to theuse of stainless steel dueto high initial cost, ende-mic power shortages, highprice volatility of nickel, anunrecognised sector pro-ducing cheap quality pro-ducts, not enough availa-bility of scrap in the coun-try etc.”

New fully automaticsection mill

Viraj has, the companytold us, recently commis-sioned its fully automaticsection rolling mill in India.Equipped with completelyautomated processes, theplant is the first of its kindin the country on an indus-trial scale.

The plant, the companysays, is quite unique interms of facilities and hasan integrated automaticpickling line, and an auto-matic labelling and pack-aging line. This new faci-lity, with an annual capa-city of 180,000 tpy will beable to manufacture morethan 700 different shapesand designs of angles,flats and bars.

Commissioning of this newplant is a bright example,the company says, of theGroup’s commitment to itsstrategy of modernizationof the facilities and incre-asing the production vol-

umes. This is the first timethat an automation pro-cess of this magnitudehas been carried out in thestainless steel long pro-ducts sector.

The plant complies with thehigh environmental stan-dards of modern stainlesssteel manufacturing andhas Level 2 automationprocesses.

As far as launching newproducts, or investing innew ventures is concer-ned, as of now we do nothave any plans to launchnew products, the compa-ny says. “However in thefuture we would surely ex-plore other options consi-dering the market trendand demand pattern.”

Focus on theenvironment

In its view, Viraj says,green technology encom-passes all products andprocesses that make theuse of energy more efficientand easier on resources,thereby reducing emiss-ions and pollution of theenvironment. “In fact ca-ring for the environmenthas been a part of our cor-porate growth strategy.Some of the focus areasas part of our environmentfriendly approach are re-cycling management, en-ergy management, sus-tainable water treatmentfacility etc.

“Without compromising onquality, we use waste ex-change extensively wherethe waste product of oneprocess becomes the rawmaterial for another pro-cess. The main area whe-re we contribute with re-

cycled material is in ourmelt shop, for which weimport industrial and do-mestic recycled scrapfrom various countries inorder to produce qualitystainless steel material.

� “In line with the la-test emissionnorms and to en-sure zero dischargeof fumes, we haveimported and instal-led new inductionfurnaces in our meltshop. These fur-naces have ash col-lectors to collectthe dust and con-veyor belts for thecharging process.

� “For processessuch as inductionmelting, AOD re-fining and conti-nuous casting, weensure that our in-duction furnacesare utilized on a ro-tational basis. Thisalso ensures thatthey are maintainedto perform at opti-mum levels to pro-vide a better outputof material qualityand minimize theconsumption of en-ergy, offering overallefficiency throughreduced wastageand high utilizationof resources.

� “Our automatictemperature controlsystem preventsoverheating whichdirectly saves ener-gy requirement percycle.

� “In our shot blastingprocess, in the pro-files division, wecollect all the par-ticles of dust gene-rated during the

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Stainlßss Steßl Focus 09/2014 31

process fitted tothe vessel. The hea-vy particles withheavy iron contentremain at the bot-tom and are remo-ved manually. The-se are then char-ged again into theinduction furnace tosave cost and redu-ce wastage.

� “We conserve the

water used in ourannealing and pick-ling process aswell. We recyclewater by installing ascrubber and ab-sorber system andtreating it with acidor base as requiredfor neutralisation.After filtration weremove the solidimpurities. Thus we

use the same wa-ter again and savethe cost and natu-ral resource at thesame time.

“With our in-house logi-stics company”, Virajsays, “we are able to con-tribute directly to the con-trol of pollution by usingenvironment friendly fuel.Stringent management of

fleet schedules and conti-nuous maintenance ofvehicles further leads tooptimum fuel consump-tion.”

Plans for the future

Commenting on possibleplans for the future, NeerajR Kochhar told StainlessSteel Focus: “As far as ourproduct portfolio is con-cerned, we are going tokeep offering the sameproduct categories, butyes, we are working ondeveloping new sizes andspecifications for some ofour products. These de-velopments are being donekeeping in mind the requi-rement of our customersand they are being de-veloped in constant con-sultation with them. How-ever, it is still too early todivulge any details aboutthat and we would surelyshare the same once wehave achieved the end re-sult.”