To ride the slump in the steel market, Mukand's R&D team is currently working on creating special grades of steel -- a deviation from the normal grades like 200 series and 300 series manufactured by most steel makers -- to be different in a tight market condition.

The thrust on R&D, however, is just one of the several initiatives being put in place by Mukand to increase exports in a major way.

The company's efforts are focused on carving a niche for itself in the alloy market by gaining a first entry advantage over other players. Mukand is a major player in the industrial products market of the Rs 1,000-crore alloy steel industry. Of the total volume of 4-5 million tonnes that this industry has, Mukand has a 60 per cent market share.

Mukand Ltd deputy general manager (R&D and TQM) Amit Ganguly said the series ofproducts the company is planning to introduce will cater to industries like aerospace, nuclear power, defence and food processing. With no player currently manufacturing these special grades of steel, the requirement is being met through imports.

In addition to producing special grades of steel to cater to industries importing those grades, Mukand will be tapping the export market aggressively to reduce dependence on the local market.

As part of its plans to achieve a better realisation, Mukand has drawn up plans to increase exports of stainless steel by at least 50 per cent over the previous year. The company will be closing the current financial year with exports of around Rs 100 crore and plans to increase this by 50 per cent in the next financial year.

"The company sees a good potential to service the Asian markets now as the Asian currencies have strengthened against the US dollar, from the low levels of November 1997," says Mukand Ltd general manager (marketing) AM Kulkarni.

According toKulkarni, the company is looking to develop new markets in Latin America, South Africa and the Middle East. "The average export realisation shall improve over the like period of earlier year. The past year has probably seen the worst in terms of international prices and the company now expects slight improvement in this area." he said.

While the capacities will remain more or less the same, exports will go up, thus reducing the dependence on the domestic market which is undergoing a recession. This will also improve margins, say industry analysts.