SKF India Limited (BOM:500472)
India flag India · Delayed Price · Currency is INR
1,712.10
-55.80 (-3.16%)
At close: May 11, 2026
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Q1 24/25

Aug 14, 2024

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, good morning, and welcome to the SKF India Limited Q1 FY 2024-25 earnings conference call. For the smooth conduct of the meeting, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please press star then zero on your touch tone telephone. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand over the conference to Ashish Pruthi from SKF India Limited. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Ashish Pruthi
Head of Investor Relations, SKF India Limited

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. Today with us, we have SKF India's Managing Director, Mr. Mukund Vasudevan, and our CFO, Mr. Ashish Saraf. Before I turn the call over to the management, I would like to remind you that in this call, some of the remarks contain forward-looking statements, which are subject to risk and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially. Such statements are based on management beliefs as well as assumptions made by and on the information currently available to the management. The audience is cautioned not to place undue reliance on this forward-looking statement and making any investment decisions. The purpose of today's call is to purely educate and bring awareness about the company's fundamental business and the financial quarter under review. I'm sure you've been through the results and seen those of Q1 FY 2024-25.

We can now open the call for Q&A.

Operator

Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handset while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Mukesh Saraf at Avendus Spark. Please go ahead.

Mumukshu Mandlesha
Analyst, Anand Rathi Institutional Equities

Yeah, good morning, and thank you for the opportunity. My first question is on the revenue mix. So could you kind of give us some details on the different segments like the auto industrial exports and probably within that some of the subsegments as well?

Ashish Pruthi
Head of Investor Relations, SKF India Limited

Right. I'll let Ashish Saraf, my CFO, answer that, in terms of, so that he can share precise numbers.

Ashish Saraf
CFO, SKF India Limited

Sure. So if you look at this quarter's revenue, right, we reported net sales of around INR 11.8 billion, right? Out of which, around 50% was industrial business and around 41% was auto, automotive, and the balance 8%-9% was exports. So that's been the overall split.

Mumukshu Mandlesha
Analyst, Anand Rathi Institutional Equities

Uh, sure.

Ashish Saraf
CFO, SKF India Limited

In terms of key segments which delivered growth in this quarter, the key segments which delivered strong growth were heavy industries and metals within the industrial business, and two-wheelers, cars, and tractor business with the automotive group.

Mumukshu Mandlesha
Analyst, Anand Rathi Institutional Equities

So would you be able to kind of provide some breakup, like, say, within autos, how much is two-wheelers, four-wheelers, and say, within industrial, how much is the heavy industrials, metals, wind, rail, some of these key end markets?

Ashish Saraf
CFO, SKF India Limited

Sure. So two-wheelers, out of the total 100%, right? I'm giving you the share of two-wheeler. The two-wheeler is around 13% of our business, and heavy is around 5%. Overall aftermarket, both industrial and automotive, is around 35%. Right.

Mumukshu Mandlesha
Analyst, Anand Rathi Institutional Equities

Okay. How much would rail and wind be, sir?

Ashish Saraf
CFO, SKF India Limited

Yeah. So rail is around 7%, and wind is around 3% of the overall business.

Mumukshu Mandlesha
Analyst, Anand Rathi Institutional Equities

You said 3%?

Ashish Saraf
CFO, SKF India Limited

Yeah. Yeah, that's right.

Mumukshu Mandlesha
Analyst, Anand Rathi Institutional Equities

Okay. So and four-wheelers, so within autos, like two-wheelers, you mentioned is 13%. Four-wheelers would be, I mean, passenger cars.

Ashish Saraf
CFO, SKF India Limited

Four-wheeler is around 6% of our overall business. When I say four-wheelers, again, I'm talking about passenger cars only.

Mumukshu Mandlesha
Analyst, Anand Rathi Institutional Equities

Right. Understood... Great. Thank you for that. The second question is on your localization strategy. I mean, we do understand that, I think you should be around 60% localized in SKF India, in terms of manufacturing in India itself. So what's the strategy there, in terms of trying to localize or substitute some of the imports, especially in the industrial segment? So this, I want to also kind of juxtapose with the fact that, the parent company in its recent commentary mentioned that, we're gonna be cutting back on CapEx globally.

How is the parent company looking at the Indian operations, you know, with respect to adding more capacity locally here and probably even at some point in time, looking to export from here, or rather increasing export from here?

Mukund Vasudevan
Managing Director, SKF India Limited

Okay, I can take that question. So, you're right, we are around 60% localized. The automotive side of the business is a lot more localized, so it's almost 95% localized, and the industrial is a little less. So, the main focus of localization is on the industrial business, and our aspiration there is to kind of take the around 40-45 right now to 65 in the next two to three years. So that process of localization is already started. It will continue. The global strategy on reducing CapEx is just prudence, but it doesn't mean the same brush applies to all regions.

Where it makes sense both for to build competitive value, value chains, which is one of the stated strategies of even the parent company, where it makes sense, the, for local region, for region growth, we are making investments, but we're just being prudent about it.

Mumukshu Mandlesha
Analyst, Anand Rathi Institutional Equities

So just one clarification there. When you mention localization here, do you talk only about this listed company, SKF India, or do you talk about the other sister company here as well in India?

Mukund Vasudevan
Managing Director, SKF India Limited

My answers right now are mainly around the listed company, right?

Mumukshu Mandlesha
Analyst, Anand Rathi Institutional Equities

Okay. Okay. Okay. Understood. Thank you for that. I'll get back with you.

Operator

Thank you very much. The next question is from the line of Harshit Patel from Equirus Securities. Please go ahead, sir.

Mumukshu Mandlesha
Analyst, Anand Rathi Institutional Equities

Thank you very much for the opportunity.

Operator

Sir, you're not audible.

Mumukshu Mandlesha
Analyst, Anand Rathi Institutional Equities

Hello? Am I audible now?

Operator

Much better.

Mumukshu Mandlesha
Analyst, Anand Rathi Institutional Equities

Sure. Sir, in the as per the annual report, we manufactured close to 59% of the products that we have sold last year, and this number increased from 49% in FY 2023. Now, given that margins on the manufactured goods are higher than the traded products, ideally the company's overall margins should have increased in FY 2024. I think this was not the case. So could you elaborate something on that, please?

Ashish Saraf
CFO, SKF India Limited

Sure. Sure. So if you look at financial year 2023, right, we were significantly impacted by the global inflation, right, which kind of started somewhere in 2022 and it kind of continued to in the entire 2023 as well, right? So we took significant pricing actions in the market, right, where we were able to get better pricing from our customers in financial year 2023, whereas in 2024, the financial actions, sorry, pricing actions have relatively stabilized, right? So our margins on the traded products were relatively much higher in financial year 2023, vis-à-vis financial year 2024, right? That's where when you look at even though our manufacturing mix went up to almost 60% in financial year 2024, our overall margins for financial year 2024 was relatively pretty much in line with what we experienced last year, right?

Mumukshu Mandlesha
Analyst, Anand Rathi Institutional Equities

Understood.

Ashish Saraf
CFO, SKF India Limited

Hopefully that answers your question, right?

Mumukshu Mandlesha
Analyst, Anand Rathi Institutional Equities

Yes, sir, that answers it. Sure. Sir, secondly, on our railways portfolio, out of our overall railways and metro trains, how much is imported and how much is manufactured by the sister unlisted company? I believe we wouldn't be manufacturing anything in the listed entity for this particular segment.

Ashish Saraf
CFO, SKF India Limited

For the railway segment, you are right. Railways is almost a significant portion of it is already localized in India, but it is manufactured by the unlisted company, and it's subsequently sold to the to SKF India, which eventually goes and sells it to the end customer.

Mumukshu Mandlesha
Analyst, Anand Rathi Institutional Equities

So, if you could broadly-

Ashish Saraf
CFO, SKF India Limited

Yes.

Mumukshu Mandlesha
Analyst, Anand Rathi Institutional Equities

Sir, if you could broadly speak about the share between the imports, which is the unlisted entity, from where you source this railway product, then that will be very helpful.

Ashish Saraf
CFO, SKF India Limited

The majority of it is sourced from the unlisted company, right? Again, I don't have the exact number with me, but I would say almost 80% is sourced from the unlisted company, and the balance 20% is sourced from other SKF companies.

Mumukshu Mandlesha
Analyst, Anand Rathi Institutional Equities

Understood, sir. Sir, just one clarification on the margins part. Is the understanding correct that trading margins will always make certain positive EBITDA on all the traded products, irrespective of whether manufacturing entity is making a loss or even very high profit? Would that understanding be correct?

Ashish Saraf
CFO, SKF India Limited

That is right. So for the traded products, SKF India acts as a limited risk distributor, right? Where the margins for SKF India is calculated under the transfer pricing guidelines, which is the net margin method, right? Which ensures that SKF India kind of makes reasonable margin on the products that it is selling, even though the actual margins might be way higher or way, or we might be selling at a loss.

Mumukshu Mandlesha
Analyst, Anand Rathi Institutional Equities

Understood. That clarifies my questions. Thank you very much for answering my questions, and all the best for the future.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Mumukshu Mandlesha from Anand Rathi Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.

Mumukshu Mandlesha
Analyst, Anand Rathi Institutional Equities

Yeah. Hi, sir, Mumukshu here. Thank you so much for the opportunity, and congratulations to Mukund, sir, on your new role. So just first, on broader level, how are you seeing the demand side, in particular on auto replacement and on the industrial sides, whether railways, wind, drives, when the demand outcomes more bullish, can you indicate how the demand trends are there, sir?

Mukund Vasudevan
Managing Director, SKF India Limited

Yeah. So, I can answer that. It's... So let's start with the automotive side. Overall, I think automotive is a mixed bag, while the two-wheeler and tractor segment is continuing to see some growth, especially two-wheelers. The passenger vehicle and commercial vehicle has been relatively flat. Passenger vehicles, inside passenger vehicles, we are seeing a little bit of a shift towards larger vehicles, SUVs kind of things. Of course, though the volume is small, EVs is both in two-wheelers and four-wheelers, is growing a bit. It's growing faster. So I'd say, demand-wise, it's a mixed bag in automotive.

Industrial, we are seeing all the infrastructure-led segments growing well, which are heavy metals, so heavy being cement, and a few others, metals, and correspondingly aftermarket also, right? We are seeing decent demand from wind and railways, but we're treading very cautiously there, mainly to preserve our margins, because I expect price expectations there are quite low. So broadly, that's kind of where we see... But we are very diversified, as Ashish mentioned, in terms of our split of segments. So, we're able to play the economic cycles much better.

Mumukshu Mandlesha
Analyst, Anand Rathi Institutional Equities

Got it, sir. So I mean, just on the wind and railway, just, can you explain me more, what kind of price challenge is there, in this market, would you like, sir?

Mukund Vasudevan
Managing Director, SKF India Limited

I think it's driven by in wind, you know, the pricing. It starts with the end user pricing, which has been low. So since these are all driven by end user price auctions, reverse auctions, so that trickles down to the OEMs who are supplying equipment to the EPCs who are building the wind farms. So the price pressures start from the car, all the way from the auction of setting up wind farms, all the way back to us as equipment, as component suppliers to equipment manufacturers. So that's the reason for the price pressures there. It's just very, very competitive, both for the OEM and for us. So we selectively play there.

We pick even within, there's multiple bearings which go within a windmill, and we pick the ones where we clearly have an edge and we can get the price expectations of product, a better product demand. On railways, it again varies, right? We have fairly high share in some of the high-speed trains which are being introduced, like Vande Bharat and things like that, metros. On freight, it is a lot more competitive, and that goes largely with L1 auctions, as is the norm normally in many government projects. And there we're facing increasing price pressures.

Mumukshu Mandlesha
Analyst, Anand Rathi Institutional Equities

Got it. So both the segments, sir, would still be on the positive growth side, sir, railways and wind, sir?

Mukund Vasudevan
Managing Director, SKF India Limited

For us, or you're saying overall?

Mumukshu Mandlesha
Analyst, Anand Rathi Institutional Equities

For you, sir.

Mukund Vasudevan
Managing Director, SKF India Limited

For us, I would say wind on the top line is actually down, and that's primarily because of conscious actions to back away from some some projects. Okay. Railways has is a little lumpy, but I don't know the exact growth in railways.

Ashish Saraf
CFO, SKF India Limited

So, just to add to what Mukund said, for wind business, we had taken some pruning actions, but mostly customer pruning actions for the wind business are completed, right? As we kind of close out Q2. So we kind of expect going forward that the wind business should start growing again. With respect to railways and defense business, again, because of elections, relatively the growth in this quarter was flat, but we expect our railway business to grow. Because as you could say, it's a lumpy business, it's a tender business. So as NDA has kind of formed the government again, we expect their policies with respect to transforming railways will continue, and some of the flagship projects like Train 18 and others, freight corridor and all this continue to expand.

With that, we should be able to expand and see growth in the upcoming quarters.

Mumukshu Mandlesha
Analyst, Anand Rathi Institutional Equities

Got it, sir. And, sir, in overall, sir, what kind of guidance on would you give, sir, in the auto and industrial, sir? Will it be closer to double digits, sir, which we have done in the past, sir?

Ashish Saraf
CFO, SKF India Limited

So generally, as a practice, we do not provide any guidance or to the market, so we kind of leave it at that.

Mumukshu Mandlesha
Analyst, Anand Rathi Institutional Equities

Got it, sir. So, as broadly, I mean, I was seeing some of the peers on the bearing side, they were doing very good double-digit growth. And, we had, I mean, we also had a good growth in Q4 quarter, but in Q1, we're seeing a smaller growth. So is it more related to the wind and railways, where we are more selectively, selectively going for the orders, sir?

Mukund Vasudevan
Managing Director, SKF India Limited

That would be right.

Mumukshu Mandlesha
Analyst, Anand Rathi Institutional Equities

Got it, sir. So on the previous quarter of Q2 FY 2024, where we are selling deep in the margins, and then we saw the recovery in the latest quarters. Just can you speak about what happened in that quarter, sir?

Mukund Vasudevan
Managing Director, SKF India Limited

Sorry, I did not understand the question. Can you repeat again?

Mumukshu Mandlesha
Analyst, Anand Rathi Institutional Equities

Yeah. So on the, on the Q2 FY 2024 quarter, sir, the last year quarter, sir, where there was selling dip in the margins, on the 500-600 basis points fall in the margins, sir. So which, I mean, got recovered in the corresponding quarters. Just want to understand what happened, particularly on that quarter, sir.

Ashish Saraf
CFO, SKF India Limited

If I have understood your question, clearly, you are asking that in this quarter, we had a slight drop in our margins compared to last quarter?

Mukund Vasudevan
Managing Director, SKF India Limited

No, no.

Mumukshu Mandlesha
Analyst, Anand Rathi Institutional Equities

No.

Mukund Vasudevan
Managing Director, SKF India Limited

Thank you. Q4 of 23, there was a dip. What was that dip due to? And, since then we've recovered.

Ashish Saraf
CFO, SKF India Limited

So if you look at our... Again, I don't recollect exactly, like, those two quarters away, but if I look at my Q4 results for last year, right? Relatively, my sales for Q4, right, was... We're talking about Q4 2024, so January to March.

Mumukshu Mandlesha
Analyst, Anand Rathi Institutional Equities

Q2, Q2, FY 2024, sir. Q2.

Ashish Saraf
CFO, SKF India Limited

Q2, FY 2024, which is July to September quarter?

Mumukshu Mandlesha
Analyst, Anand Rathi Institutional Equities

Uh, yes.

Mukund Vasudevan
Managing Director, SKF India Limited

Yeah. Yeah.

Ashish Saraf
CFO, SKF India Limited

Okay. So again, if you look at that quarter, year on year, there was a relatively a dip in our overall sales, right? We didn't grow our business because we had some impacts coming in from the distribution business, as well as we had some challenges in the automotive business as well, right? So that kind of impacted our results because there was not a significant growth in that particular quarter. That's what I recollect. That kind of had an adverse impact.

Mumukshu Mandlesha
Analyst, Anand Rathi Institutional Equities

Was there any impact of any trading mix particularly going up very high in that quarter, imports being higher?

Ashish Saraf
CFO, SKF India Limited

Specifically, July to September, and this is this earnings call is specifically for this quarter. What I would recommend is that if you have any specific questions to any of the previous quarters, if you can just send us an email and we, I can revert back to you on that. I think that would be better.

Mumukshu Mandlesha
Analyst, Anand Rathi Institutional Equities

Awesome. Sir, can you share what was the credit mix for this quarter and for the previous quarters, sir? Q4 and the Q1 quarters, sir, last year.

Ashish Saraf
CFO, SKF India Limited

What was the trading mix, right?

Mumukshu Mandlesha
Analyst, Anand Rathi Institutional Equities

Yeah, trading mix.

Ashish Saraf
CFO, SKF India Limited

So this quarter, we had a good improvement in our manufacturing mix. Our manufacturing mix was around 64%, whereas our traded product sale was 36%. So we are seeing improvements in our manufacturing mix, if you compare year-on-year.

Mumukshu Mandlesha
Analyst, Anand Rathi Institutional Equities

Okay, sir. Sir, also, can you share, you shared for the Q1, the segmental mix. Can you share also for the FY 2024, sir, for calculation purpose, sir? Thank you.

Ashish Saraf
CFO, SKF India Limited

So, if you look at financial year 2024, our industrial mix was again, industrial was at 51%, automotive was around 40%, and again, exports was at around 8%, right? So, again, some of the key segments were with the industrial business. Distribution was almost 50%, which is 25% of the overall business. And, segments like general machinery was at 8%, rail and defense was at 7%, and heavy industries was at 5%. Similarly, in the two-wheeler business, again, sorry, the automotive business, the aftermarket business was around 11%, and cars business was at around 5%, two-wheeler was at 13%, and trucks and tractors were at around 6%.

Pretty much similar mix as to what you see for full year versus what you see in this quarter.

Mumukshu Mandlesha
Analyst, Anand Rathi Institutional Equities

On the drive and powertrain, what would that be mixing?

Ashish Saraf
CFO, SKF India Limited

Yeah. So drives and powertrain was around 6%.

Mumukshu Mandlesha
Analyst, Anand Rathi Institutional Equities

Okay, sir. So on the CapEx guidance, sir, CapEx release, sir, on the guidance, sir?

Ashish Saraf
CFO, SKF India Limited

If you look at our financial year 2024, we have increased our CapEx kind of spend around INR 1 crore on CapEx. For financial year 2025 as well, we expect our CapEx to more or less remain in a similar way.

Mumukshu Mandlesha
Analyst, Anand Rathi Institutional Equities

Out of which you say INR 30 crore is a maintenance CapEx, rest would be for the growth CapEx, sir?

Ashish Saraf
CFO, SKF India Limited

Yes, you are right. So, and then there are new investments on channels and et cetera.

Mumukshu Mandlesha
Analyst, Anand Rathi Institutional Equities

Okay. I mean, generally, where the capacity is seeing the increase, sir? Which segments you are seeing the increase in capacity?

Mukund Vasudevan
Managing Director, SKF India Limited

I think it's pretty much across the board where we are, I mean, we're seeing it in automotive, we're seeing it in some, some of the industrial areas. And we spoke about some of the areas like, yeah. So I'd say a lot of, lot of the investment is going to some in Pune, because we are running out of capacity in the automotive side. Some of it is for new areas of expansion, especially in the aftermarket of industrial, which is a widespread, everything from general machinery to some of the heavy industries.

Mumukshu Mandlesha
Analyst, Anand Rathi Institutional Equities

When you say aftermarket expansion is more related to warehousing and those areas, sir?

Mukund Vasudevan
Managing Director, SKF India Limited

No, no, no, no.

Ashish Saraf
CFO, SKF India Limited

Bearings, which we sell-

Mukund Vasudevan
Managing Director, SKF India Limited

The bearing we manufacture goes into the aftermarket, meaning goes through distribution into a wide array end users.

Mumukshu Mandlesha
Analyst, Anand Rathi Institutional Equities

Okay. Okay. Thank you so much for this opportunity. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you very much. The next question is from the line of Rajkumar Vidyanathan, individual investor. Please go ahead.

Rajkumar Vaidyanathan
Investor, Individual

Yeah, good morning. Thanks for the opportunity. So yeah, I have one clarification and two questions. But, clarification is, you know, you mentioned that the sales growth for the current quarter is tepid due to lower contribution from rail segment, and you expect this segment to pick up in the subsequent quarters. So is that understanding correct, sir?

Mukund Vasudevan
Managing Director, SKF India Limited

Yeah. Not quite, right. Rail is one of the contributors, but there is also a little bit on the wind, which is due to customer pruning from last year. So that's the, that's part of the reason. The wind was a contributor also. Without the wind customer pruning, there would have been at least a 2.5%-3% uptick in our growth. Also, there was some slowdown due to elections in the aftermarket and distribution, and in some of the investments being made by the heavy industry. So I'd say combination of this is the reason for the slightly lower growth, but we're not worried.

Rajkumar Vaidyanathan
Investor, Individual

Okay. So you expect the growth to pick up in the coming quarters, right?

Mukund Vasudevan
Managing Director, SKF India Limited

Yeah. That's our expectation.

Rajkumar Vaidyanathan
Investor, Individual

Yeah. Yeah. So the first question is, you know, I'm just labeling on the previous point asked by the previous questioner. So you mentioned that the localization is about approximately, approximately 60%. But if I see your income statement, the ratio of the cost from a value standpoint, or the cost of material consumed with the stock and trade, if you see, so what we used to do, basically it is 40 versus 60. So I just wanted to know when will these two will also converge to the, you know, the percentages that we are talking about?

Ashish Saraf
CFO, SKF India Limited

So, again, can you, can you? Because I couldn't hear you very clearly.

Mukund Vasudevan
Managing Director, SKF India Limited

I'm not sure the two are connected. I think the question was, our localized content is around 60%, but our mix between stock and sell versus make to order, right, is more like stock and sell is more like 30%. Is that what you said?

Rajkumar Vaidyanathan
Investor, Individual

40%. If you see the material consumed is INR 302 crore, and purchase, stock and trade is about INR 495 crore. Or if you just take FY 2023-2024, that's more appropriate. 1,060 crore on material consumed, and 1,672 crore on stock and trade. So that's about 40-60.... So I just, my question is, when from a value standpoint also, this will converge, you know, from, from whatever technical definition?

Ashish Saraf
CFO, SKF India Limited

I get your question now. So in a stable environment, yes, right, that this, the spend on raw material and the spend on finished goods, right, should less align to the overall manufacturing mix and to a trading mix, and the trading mix. However, we are not operating in a perfect world, right? The costs in European factories or factories in the developed markets are relatively higher, right? So cost of procuring those products and selling in the Indian market will be relatively much higher. And the products which we are manufacturing or we are localized in the Indian market, considering that if your supply, if your sourcing is from the Indian market, it's relatively much more stable.

You will always see a bit of gap between the actual mix of manufacturing and trading versus the actual cost associated with the manufactured products and the traded products.

Rajkumar Vaidyanathan
Investor, Individual

Yeah.

Mukund Vasudevan
Managing Director, SKF India Limited

But you're right. Theoretically, you're right. It should start converging as we localize more. It'll never converge fully, because we will always trade some products. It doesn't. We don't have economies of scale to manufacture everything here locally. But as we localize more, this will converge more and more.

Rajkumar Vaidyanathan
Investor, Individual

Okay, got it, sir. So the second question is, I mean, just an extension of the first question only. So I just wonder, is your margins, manufacturing margins higher than your, trading margins, or it's the other way? I don't want the exact number, just, from a, you know, relationship standpoint.

Ashish Saraf
CFO, SKF India Limited

The manufacturing margins are higher than our traded, trading margins. That's right.

Rajkumar Vaidyanathan
Investor, Individual

Okay. Okay, and just to labor on the same point, if I compare your material cost from Q4 of FY 2023-2024 with the current Q1, it has moved from 58.75 to almost 60 points. There's a 200 basis points increase in material cost. So I just thought with the softness in steel and other commodities, so we should have seen a better kind of-

Ashish Saraf
CFO, SKF India Limited

As I mentioned, the costs have increased because our overall production has increased. Our manufacturing mix has gone up, right, from 58% quarter-over-quarter to 64%, right? So if you look at my overall mix has gone up by six percent, whereas the costs have gone up, as you said, by a couple of percentage points.

Rajkumar Vaidyanathan
Investor, Individual

Okay. Okay. Got it, sir. So the second question is, see in the last quarter, there was a question asked about transition of some business from South Korea to India, because your parent company has mentioned that they are going to shut down some plants in South Korea and Germany, and some of that business will move to plants in India, China and Mexico. So just wanted to know any color on, you know, that, any date on that?

Ashish Saraf
CFO, SKF India Limited

Yeah, you are right. There is a transition, like there are some channels which are moving from South Korea to India, which is in the literature. That's right.

Rajkumar Vaidyanathan
Investor, Individual

So, any idea what the value of those in terms of value is, how much it will be? And when will you be-

Ashish Saraf
CFO, SKF India Limited

I don't have the values with me right now, but it's already baked in on our CapEx spend, kind of communicated before, like in the previous question.

Rajkumar Vaidyanathan
Investor, Individual

Okay. Okay. And lastly, so what are the margin levers that are available to the company go forward?

Mukund Vasudevan
Managing Director, SKF India Limited

So, you know, I think we've mentioned this before. Obviously, localization is clearly one, which will continue to improve our margin. We continue to look at pricing, where we believe our products justify a premium, there is pricing action being taken. Portfolio cleanup, where if there is a unprofitable or low profitable customer, we either negotiate price increases with them or we drop it. We're not chasing growth for the sake of growth, we are chasing profitable growth. And last but not the least, continuous improvement in our manufacturing and procurement. All these are actions in place, and I think will continue to support our margin improvement.

Rajkumar Vaidyanathan
Investor, Individual

Okay. So is it fair to say then, going forward, the margin play will be much better than your top line play?

Mukund Vasudevan
Managing Director, SKF India Limited

I don't think there is, it's one or the other. I would say we have taken some of the tough pricing and customer portfolio cleanup actions. I would expect a little more focus on the top line and but maintaining or slightly improving margins.

Rajkumar Vaidyanathan
Investor, Individual

Okay. Got it, sir. Thank you so much for answering this.

Operator

Thank you very much. The next question is from the line of Raj Shah from Marcellus. Please go ahead.

Raj Shah
Analyst, Marcellus

... am I audible?

Operator

Yes, sir, you're audible.

Raj Shah
Analyst, Marcellus

Yeah. First of all, I would like to thank you, the management for this call, and I hope that it is a regular practice. So my first question is actually a follow-up of the previous participant's question regarding this South Korea facility being closed down and the transfer of those products to the India and China facility. So the question was: Has this already started from this year, or do you anticipate going forward this year?

Ashish Saraf
CFO, SKF India Limited

It has already started, in the sense that we have already started the transition process, but, the transition is not yet fully completed. It is in process right now.

Raj Shah
Analyst, Marcellus

Okay. Okay. Got it. Another question was, I mean, as you mentioned that, the manufacturing mix has increased, I'm talking from F-24 perspective. So, if I see, there is a fall in the traded goods being sold number, and there is an increase in, say, our industrial revenues. So, is there any specific, if you can mention, increase in the industrial localization content for the year F-24?

Ashish Saraf
CFO, SKF India Limited

I will not have specific data with respect to what is the local content increase for the manufacturing products, not for the sale products. But overall, I'm just kind of looking at what is my manufacturing mix and trading mix. So that has gone up, right? My first financial year 2024, it's at 60%, overall manufacturing mix, vis-à-vis last year's of 55%. Specific to industrial, maybe you can send me a question and I can get back to you.

Raj Shah
Analyst, Marcellus

Okay, sir. Last question was regarding the industrial demand. So, sir, we are hearing a lot of Capex projection steel and cement sector. I just wanted to know your thoughts from the demand perspective in this heavy industries?

Mukund Vasudevan
Managing Director, SKF India Limited

Yeah, I think the demand is strong, and we are also doing very well there, right. We're seeing almost 30% odd growth in the heavy metals section, which is driven by the infrastructure. Yeah, so when we continue seeing that, while a temporary blip might be there in terms of the elections, might have been there in the last quarter, I think we continue to see that continuing through to the next year.

Raj Shah
Analyst, Marcellus

Okay. Thank you, that answers my question. Thank you very much.

Operator

Thank you very much. The next question is from the line of Mayank Bhandari from AMSEC. Please go ahead.

Mayank Bhandari
Analyst, Amsec

So my first question is on the annual report that you have recently published. Couple of things you highlighted, like your 60% share in the Vande Bharat train set and 100% share of business in the drive systems and traction motor and anti-roll bearings. Just wanted to understand, have you already won those orders, or you are yet to, and you are yet to execute, or you have already executed these orders? Because, and the reason I'm asking is because in railways, your business seems to have declined, and there seems to be good commentary in the annual report around the business review.

Ashish Saraf
CFO, SKF India Limited

On the railway business, if you look at train 18, okay, as we mentioned in the annual report, we kind of continue to have a good share of business and in the passenger business. Overall, railway business, where you're seeing our competition increase, whereas we are not growing freight business, right? Which is where, relatively our share is, much lower compared to our competition, given the overall pricing pressures that we see in the world.

Mukund Vasudevan
Managing Director, SKF India Limited

Execute the Vande Bharat.

Ashish Saraf
CFO, SKF India Limited

Yeah, the Vande Bharat piece, we have already... As I said, we already continue to have 50% share, and we continue to win orders from our customers.

Mukund Vasudevan
Managing Director, SKF India Limited

Some of it has been executed.

Ashish Saraf
CFO, SKF India Limited

Yeah.

Mukund Vasudevan
Managing Director, SKF India Limited

So what you're seeing there is a mix of what we have won, but what we have walked away from in freight.

Mayank Bhandari
Analyst, Amsec

Okay. Okay. And, in the freight, you last time had mentioned that you had a double-digit market share. So how would be the market share now in the freight, as you're telling that you are not being able to ramp up in the freight?

Mukund Vasudevan
Managing Director, SKF India Limited

I don't think we have published that level of detail. But if you send a question separately, we can look at it. We can see what we can share with you.

Mayank Bhandari
Analyst, Amsec

Okay, okay. And, secondly, you had also mentioned that, the annual report capacity utilization for FY 2024 was almost 84%, and, with the kind of number you have given of 16 crore bearings almost in FY 2024, this number is on the volume side. So I'm just wondering if you can give the breakdown of value versus the volume growth in FY 2024, I think the total number is 6% growth in FY 2024.

Ashish Saraf
CFO, SKF India Limited

So, your question is in terms of sales volume?

Mukund Vasudevan
Managing Director, SKF India Limited

Volume growth versus-

Ashish Saraf
CFO, SKF India Limited

Well, sir, the manufacturing business, again, correlated to the overall manufacturing mix, right? My manufacturing mix for financial year 2024, right? So 60% of my total net sales came in from all bearings and

Mayank Bhandari
Analyst, Amsec

Mm-hmm. Okay. No, actually, I was trying to understand 6% growth of FY 2024, what would be the volume growth and value, value growth breakup?

Ashish Saraf
CFO, SKF India Limited

I would have that number in terms of what would be the value, volume growth for the manufacturing products. We can come back to you.

Mayank Bhandari
Analyst, Amsec

Okay. Okay. Just lastly, sir, in the annual report you mentioned that, Indian ball bearing industry is expected to grow at almost 11%, rather 23-29, and, the global market is expected to grow at almost, 4%. Our growth has been bit sluggish in the domestic market, where industry itself we are forecasting to grow at double digit, and we are growing in single digits. What is our, roadmap of, improving this growth in the domestic market?

Mukund Vasudevan
Managing Director, SKF India Limited

So I think globally, because of a lot of headwinds, so I'll answer your first part first, right? Globally, because of a lot of headwinds, we're not seeing that kind of growth which was projected. You know, the China economy is down, that itself is bringing down growth. EMEA, or Europe, Middle East, Africa, is also down. Europe is also down significantly because of war and, to some extent, Middle East unrest is also causing downturn. And then, Americas is also a little bit, I mean it's not yet into recession or it's, but it's, the economy is quite soft. It's not; it's in very low single digit growth right now.

So I would say, the previous statement of overall bearing growth of 4% globally is probably not quite what we're seeing. As far as India is concerned, I would say our strategy has always been profitable growth. We will continue to aspire to grow at 11%+, right? But not at the expense of profitability. And what you're seeing soft, what you're calling softness right now is kind of very prudent actions on our part on what to pursue and what not to pursue. In terms of future, how we kind of want to get back to higher growth numbers, I think it's a strategy of what we have, we've spoken about in the past. It's more localization will help us get more competitive.

It's about going after the segments where we see growth, so very focused strategies around these high growth segments. Developing products for these high growth segments, like innovating with OEMs, whether it's automotive or industrial OEMs, to deliver against to gain additional market share. And continue to expand our overall solution to the customer, including services and associated bearing products with bearings. So all those are elements of our growth strategy. We continue to drive each one of these both with our internal teams, but also with our channel partners, distributors.

Mayank Bhandari
Analyst, Amsec

So basically what you're saying that we are trying our best to retain the market share, but it seems that the counterfeit products or the unorganized sector seems to be growing faster in the ball bearing segment than the organized sector, or yeah, is it the correct way to understand?

Mukund Vasudevan
Managing Director, SKF India Limited

I don't think the data is that clear on that. But I would say this is anecdotal information which we are hearing through talking to various customers. There is some uptick in. I would not say fake bearings, but in terms of unbranded bearings. But that is something we continue to watch out for, and I don't think it'll be a big needle mover.

Some segments in the market may go for either fake or unbranded, but we continue to watch those and see what we can do to kind of recover those customers or eliminate the fakes, the source of the fakes.

Mayank Bhandari
Analyst, Amsec

Okay. Okay. And, sir, lastly, you also mentioned that renewable energy seems to be you are kind of integrating it into your factories, wind, solar and all, you have CapEx in the Pune factory for renewable energy. So is there any number you can give us in terms of what is, what will be the cost saving going forward in terms of once the projects are completely executed?

Mukund Vasudevan
Managing Director, SKF India Limited

So I'd say the first step is just around sustainability. I think today we are at around 45% of the energy we use is renewable. We continue to move that needle. That number has gone up by almost 10 percentage points over last year, so we continue to move that needle. In terms of cost savings, I think you have a-

Mayank Bhandari
Analyst, Amsec

No.

Mukund Vasudevan
Managing Director, SKF India Limited

We'll have to come back to you with the exact numbers, with how much cost savings we have seen so far, right? We'll come back to you with the numbers if you send us an email.

Mayank Bhandari
Analyst, Amsec

Sure. Sure. Thank you very much.

Operator

Thank you so much. The next question is from the line of Krupa Shankar from Avendus Spark. Please go ahead.

Krupashankar NJ
Analyst, Avendus Spark

Good afternoon, and thank you for the opportunity. I have three questions. First one on your commentary around the report stating that by FY 30, you'd like to double your revenues. I just wanted to get a sense that are we looking for any specific sectors beyond the traditional core sectors which we have been operating in India? Or, and you know, like we have said with respect to exports and new opportunities are coming up, is there any further avenues where this group can be higher over the next 4-5 years? Some comments on that. Thanks.

Mukund Vasudevan
Managing Director, SKF India Limited

Okay. So, I think there are always segments where we will see higher growth. So, and we're continuing to look at those. So I'll just point out a couple of examples. One is from the automotive side, EVs are faster growth. We have bearings which are both a hybrid and ceramic range, which are more suited, and we have high market share internationally also. So, as the EV market grows, we expect to get more share and grow faster in those segments. That's one. We already mentioned the high speed trains.

Then there is also, as India is investing more in things like semiconductors, manufacturing, and that will be part of our strategy up to 2030. We will, we clearly have products which are much better suited for that, manufacturing process also. Again, we can get, better market share, and, we expect higher growth there. Even within our traditional segments, if you sub-segment, we have a, a larger category of general machinery. If you look at within general machinery, if you look at machine tools, for example, that requires high speed, and low friction bearings, that is an area of strength for us. We will continue to look at that and so on, right?

I would say there's multiple areas where we can do better and where we have a product which is superior.

Krupashankar NJ
Analyst, Avendus Spark

Understood. Thank you. On the export side of things also, if you can throw some light on whether there are opportunities beyond the Korean transition, wherein the Indian manufacturing ecosystem can be much more suited for export opportunities.

Mukund Vasudevan
Managing Director, SKF India Limited

Yeah. So, we're continuously looking at opportunities to export. We are, I would say there's a substantial opportunity within the region itself, within Southeast Asia, Australia. There's opportunities there, where we can export. We are already exporting, but we'll continue to expand that. The other, Americas, also we do export, but most of these, we sell to our parent entity, whether it's Americas or Europe, we sell to our parent entity. And there it's purely, what-- in what way can we be the most competitive? That's the decision. That's how the decision is made. So as we get more competitive, we hope that we can get more of that volume also.

We'll continue to work on that.

Krupashankar NJ
Analyst, Avendus Spark

Thank you. One more thing on some of the initiatives which SKF has taken in the past. For example, there were long-term contracts wherein, you know, SKF had entered with SAIL for, you know, supplying bearings with sensors and identifying measures. So just wanted to get a sense as to what would be this, this has been—this effort has been running for almost 4-5 years now. So just wanted to get a sense on what's the extent of contribution of specific such contracts, and has it helped in predominantly customer retention, and in many cases, it has an increased the wallet share per se?

Mukund Vasudevan
Managing Director, SKF India Limited

Okay. So, there's many elements to services, right? And, well, you mentioned some of them, like, remote monitoring of our bearings. There is also, what we call, that's what we call connected technologies. This is using IoT devices to measure bearing noise, vibration, et cetera. We also have, a reman, which is remanufacturing of bearings, which we do for railways and for some other heavy segments, which is, basically using the, remanufacturing a bearing, either, refinishing it or replacing some portions of it, so that, it becomes more sustainable, and it's more cost competitive, so but, and extends life. So there are different elements. Today, we are at around 5%-6% of our business is services.

We are looking to expand that because we are profitable, quite profitable, and we see more demand for it. As customers want more uptime or less downtime, and they want a full solution from the bearing manufacturer, it's something we are looking to do to continue to expand. Specific to the example in SAIL, again, it's not something we share, kind of, share a wallet. But yeah, I would say every customer we get into, we are looking to kind of expand share of wallet, and where it makes where the customer has gained from it, and we have delivered the value which was expected, we do gain share.

Krupashankar NJ
Analyst, Avendus Spark

Thank you. That's very helpful. Last one, what would be the proportion of CRBs and SRBs as a part of our total industrial mixture, if at all we can share a direction or approximate something?

Mukund Vasudevan
Managing Director, SKF India Limited

Just give us a second.

Operator

Yeah.

Krupashankar NJ
Analyst, Avendus Spark

Sure.

Operator

So, again, CRB data, I don't have specifically, right? But, yeah, CRB is around 25% of, on the product side.

Krupashankar NJ
Analyst, Avendus Spark

Okay. So the reason why I'm asking this, sir, is that there is a significant portion of new capacities you are coming on board from next year onwards. Are you anticipating a pricing pressure emerging because of newer capacity coming in the industry? Or is we have a fair set of customer, you know, probably a timeframe of customer servicing, due to which we can retain share. Some thoughts on that front as well.

Mukund Vasudevan
Managing Director, SKF India Limited

I didn't understand your question. Your question, are we adding capacity just to satisfy demand? Or is it-

Krupashankar NJ
Analyst, Avendus Spark

What I was saying, I was trying to highlight here is that one of your peers is adding large capacities on CRB and SRB, and that is likely to be commissioned in the next year. Is it likely to, you know, drive pricing pressure in that particular category? And how is SKF looking to mitigate this transition or change in overall industry capacity?

Mukund Vasudevan
Managing Director, SKF India Limited

I would say, look, we are also trying to localize as quickly as we can, both on CRBs and SRBs. Those are the two you mentioned, or CRBs, right? You mentioned CRBs.

Krupashankar NJ
Analyst, Avendus Spark

SRB.

Mukund Vasudevan
Managing Director, SKF India Limited

SRB.

Krupashankar NJ
Analyst, Avendus Spark

CRB and SRB.

Mukund Vasudevan
Managing Director, SKF India Limited

Yeah, CRB and SRB. Right. We are looking to localize more content there, right, or more manufacturing there. I would say, there are strengths we have, there are strengths some of our competitors have, and we will continue to kind of evolve our product strategy, to make ourselves not just more competitive, but to add more value to our customers. And I don't expect, I don't expect, you know, too much pricing pressure there, especially in areas of our strength. But I think it's, like any other market, it's a dynamic game. There, competitors will make their moves, we will make our moves. And... but I don't expect that there'll be a drastic pricing pressure just because.

Krupashankar NJ
Analyst, Avendus Spark

Understood. Thank you, Anupama. One humble request, please, to continue engaging with the investors on continuous basis rather than monthly. That's my humble request. Thank you.

Mukund Vasudevan
Managing Director, SKF India Limited

Okay, I think we are out of time. Moderator?

Operator

Yes. Shall we go for the closing, sir?

Mukund Vasudevan
Managing Director, SKF India Limited

Yes, please. So any further questions you can email, and then we can respond.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, due to time constraint, that was the last question. We will now close the conference. On behalf of SKF, SKF India Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.

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