Maharashtra Seamless’ share price hit a 52-week high, surging 39 per cent this year. The steel pipes and tubes maker recently bagged orders worth ₹188 crore from ONGC and Oil India Ltd. Speaking to Bloomberg TV India , Maharashtra Seamless Managing Director Saket Jindal says the company hopes to improve its financials in FY17 as demand is increasing from the domestic oil sector as well as exports. The company, he said, hopes to regain 60 per cent-market share now that anti-dumping duties have curbed Chinese dumping.

What’s the outlook for the steel industry, especially pipes and tubes? How have the positive developments benefitted the company?

The company is on track for further improvement in performance. Last year was not that encouraging due to the Chinese competition, dumping of Chinese products in India, coupled with low oil prices. But now oil prices are pulling up, they may remain stable before going up next year. Imposition of anti-dumping duties by the government has helped in controlling dumping. So the Chinese products will be restricted. And there is a good demand from ONGC. We should get a sizeable share of the tenders. Besides, demand for pipes from other refineries and boilers from the power sector should be coming up by the end of the year. Gradually, the trajectory should pick up.

Chinese imports had captured almost 100 per cent market share in the oil sector and 50 per cent share in the boiler sector. What kind of market-share gain is your company expecting after the imposition of the anti-dumping duty?

Earlier, our share in the oil sector was 80 per cent. After the Chinese dumping, it all went to Chinese companies. That market share should come back on target or be at least 60 per cent, if not 70-80 per cent. I think if we get back 60 per cent of the market share, it will be reasonable.

Other countries have also imposed some kind of anti-dumping duty on the Chinese imports. Will that help boost your export order book?

It will, because Canada and Turkey have levied sizeable amounts of duties on China recently and we are exploring these two markets. There are some small orders. We are gaining market share gradually. We also registered ourselves with new oil companies such as the British Petroleum and a couple of others in the US. So, I think the orders should flow in. We have to be competitive. The US market has been dull for some time. But gradually, as inventories are being used up, fresh requirements are coming in. We are waiting for the right opportunities. Gradually, I think, the demand will definitely pick up.

You won a tender for 20 MW solar power plants with NTPC in Rajasthan. Another 20 MW plant’s award is still pending. What’s the timeline for that? You are also planning 2 MW roof-top projects. What kind of revenue are you looking at from these projects during FY17?

We are targeting to commission the NTPC project by September end. But we have time till March 2017. We contracted it at ₹5 per unit. That will fetch us revenues of ₹15-16 crore per year.

What’s the size of your order book right now? What’s the proportion of domestic orders and exports?

Currently, our order book is still strong. We have a few months of order book mainly for domestic market. Seamless order book is not much. But it is expected to go up. The domestic refinery sector is expected to throw up some demand. It’s not very rosy right now. But the ONGC requirement is coming in. We also have some export orders in hand. The outlook is positive.

What’s the revenue growth target for FY17?

Over FY16, the performance in FY17 will be a marked improvement. If we can come back to the level of FY15, we will be happy about it.

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