Amritsar firm diversifies into spiral blades

Amritsar-based Shield Alloy Products, manufacturer of industrial knives and blades, is all set to venture into manufacturing of spiral blades (used by textile sector) and Carbide Tipped Blades (for paper industry), presently being imported and having huge demand in the domestic market, with total project cost of Rs. 5-6 crore.

Talking to Business Standard, Shield Alloy Products, Director, Raman K Aggarwal said, "These two types of blades are latest in the industry and so more promising, having huge demand in the domestic sector. Moreover, once the production starts, it would be 20-30 per cent cheaper than the imported ones, as presently it is imported. The machinery for the manufacturing purposes would be imported ones and we have to shell out Rs. 5-6 crores towards project cost, as these two type of blade manufacturing machine require entirely different set up."

Having 45 years of expertise, the company manufactured for the first time in India, an import substitute paper cutting knives and Longitudinal Knife Edge Grinding Machine in 1970.

The company manufactures industrial blades in a variety of sizes, designed to take on all kinds of materials and in all capacities and caters to the need of Paper and Paper related industry, Sheet Metal Industries and Plywood Industry. Besides that the company also manufacture Grinding machines and export to Indonesia, Nigeria and Kenya.

With so many types of blades under their portfolio, This fiscal the company is hopeful to achieve a turnover of Rs. 18-20 crores. The company has 60 percent share in the industrial blades segment in the organised sector. Besides catering to the needs of domestic market, the company export blades to Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and Dubai. Commenting upon the future market, he said, they are eying on European countries for exports. Commenting upon the quality, which sells, he said," The knives being manufactured by our company with latest technical know-how is three times more efficient besides being commercially viable."

The introduction of latest technology has reduced the frequency of grinding of our knives, which gives us a edge as compared to our counterparts."

Commenting about the bottlenecks, he added, " The quality of raw material which is available in the domestic market, is not at par when we compare it with the imported ones from Germany & Japan."

The Company imports raw material like High Speed Steel (HSS), high Carbon High Chrome, D1, D2 etc, that is the main bottleneck in the trade."