Nipman Fastener Industries looks to climb up value chain

New Delhi-based Nipman Fastener Industries is expanding its business beyond just fasteners. The company is now entering the business of other components which are also cold forged like fasteners. Some of them would be gear shafts, steering system components and motor shafts.

The company has invested in new machinery which has enabled it to manufacture components of up to 27mm in diameter and 305mm in length. Along with forged components, the plan is to offer machined components also. “Our game-plan now is to go up the value chain,” Pravin Malhotra, chairman, Nipman Fastener Industries, told Autocar Professional at the recent Auto Expo 2016 in New Delhi.

As part of the strategy to climb up the value chain, Nipman tied up with South Korean steering systems manufacturer Il Rying last year. Autocar Professional reported about this plan on May 18, 2015 on its website. Thanks to this tie-up, Nipman is now developing products for Mando, a South Korean Tier 1 supplier of steering systems. The technology alliance is proving to be fruitful for Nipman.  “That’s also bringing in a lot of shopfloor practices which helps us build our systems further. That can be parallelly deployed to all our processes within our group,” says Malhotra.

Nipman looks to bring HMSI on board
In the fasteners business, Nipman plans to enter the aftermarket and also ramp up exports. Hero MotoCorp, with which Nipman started its journey as a component maker, contributes to around 60 percent of its sales. But that percentage may drop as the company’s overall business expands with new customers. Hero’s former partner Honda is not yet a customer of Nipman, but Malhotra is hopeful of adding it as one. “Honda is growing at a fast rate. They will need quality fasteners at some point,” he says.

On the business from four-wheeler OEMs, Nipman is set to add two more OEMs in its clients’ list as a Tier 1 supplier. Renault is the first carmaker that it started supplying to directly.