Gaur believes it’s high time that industry bodies and policy makers to design a set of norms to set a benchmark for retail supplies.

What is your strategy to expand business for existing product range?
Our strategy is three fold. One is to keep existing customers happy at any cost because a happy customer is a repeat customer. In addition to the obvious price and quality factors, customers expect us to be flexible and responsive to their changing project requirements at short notices. We sincerely try to do that, keeping in close touch with the project people at customer end. Another part of our strategy is to ensure that the trust which our Apex brand enjoys in the market is not compromised in any way. In the depressed market scenario, there are various temptations but we have a commitment of quality to our customers and we never compromise on that. It seems a given but you would be surprised how many people falter on this. The third is to of course add new usage, new customers to our fold.

What are the challenges you see are faced by the industry in dealing with upcoming demand and supply?
Well, for the SS pipes and tubes industry, the biggest challenge is the rampant import dumping of cheap and qualitatively inferior products by unscrupulous foreign manufactures in to India. Thankfully, industry association ISSDA (Indian Stainless Steel Development Association) is working on this closely with the Government of India to fix suitable price and raise quality barriers.
What is your expectation from the industry bodies and policy makers to capitalise the present market?
I would take a slightly broader view here. We are manufacturers of pipes and tubes but I would talk about the generic product – stainless steel which we use as raw material. I think the industry bodies and policy makers should create awareness about inherent techno-commercial advantages of stainless steels over other metals in various sectors of economy. Then, a major focus area should be to create a suitable environment in India for capacity addition in stainless steels manufacturing. Presently, there are very few quality manufacturers and down-the-line industries do not have much option for raw material. Coming specifically to SS pipes and tubes, I expect industry bodies and policy makers to make some quality norms for retail supplies.

What is your company’s outlook for 2022?
The present market conditions are a little depressed, with various industrial sectors performing below their optimum levels. But we are lucky that our customers are supporting us in this situation too, and preferring our brand over others. We trust this trough shall soon end with active efforts of the government. We are very bullish about our future, on the basis of respect and reliability our brand APEX enjoys in the market presently.

Rahul Gaur, General Manager & Head -Marketing, Apex Tubes Pvt. Ltd.