Chennai, July 17 (Reporter) Wheels India Chairman S.Ram on Wednesday said the hydraulic cylinder business has grown reasonably and become profitable. Addressing the shareholders through video conferencing at the 65th Annual General Meeting of the company, he said post the merger of Sundaram Hydraulics Limited with Wheels India in FY24, the hydraulic cylinder business has grown reasonably and become profitable. “This business is expected to show good growth going forward”, he told the shareholders. The medium and heavy commercial market showed a marginal growth in FY24. There was a significant shift away from multi-axle vehicles towards tractor trailers, he said. The business supplying wheels to the construction equipment industry saw reasonable growth in FY24 with increase in volumes with most customers, he said. “While the demand for windmill components was muted in FY24, we were able to ramp up production at our plant machining large windmill castings. The plant is now a profitable business that we hope to grow ramping up in line with our casting partner” Ram said. The company’s export business grew considerably in FY24, up 24.5 %, driven by export of earthmover wheels and aluminium wheels. He said that the company has incorporated a subsidiary in the US and intends to form a subsidiary in Europe as well to give further thrust to the business development in these geographies in line with the company’s commitment to grow the export business. Answering a shareholder query, Company MD Srivats Ram said the bottom line should see an improvement this year due to the product mix and efforts taken by the company. “The mix of products should help us improve and sustain the profit”, he said. On the Aluminium Wheels business, he said that the production of Aluminium Wheels has been at 25,000 wheels a month and expects this to increase to 40,000 wheels a month this year. On Capex plans, Srivats said the company has a CapEx plan of Rs. 225 crores this year. Wheels India registered net profit of Rs. 68 crores on revenues of Rs. 4,619 crores for the year ended March 31, 2024. The company is a leading manufacturer of wheels for trucks, agricultural tractors, passenger vehicles and construction equipment; air suspension systems for trucks and buses and industrial components for the construction and windmill industry with manufacturing plants in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand...////...