01 — At a Glance
The Wheel Maker That Accidentally Became a Domestic Powerhouse
- 52-Week High / Low₹280 / ₹176
- Q3 FY26 Revenue₹1,321 Cr
- Q3 FY26 PAT₹49.2 Cr
- Q3 FY26 EPS₹3.13
- Annualised EPS (Q3×4)₹12.52
- Book Value₹104
- Price to Book1.79x
- Debt / Equity0.55x
- Interest Coverage3.20x
- FY25 Full-Year EPS₹13.38
The Auditor’s First Laugh: Steel Strips Wheels just logged ₹1,321 crore in Q3 FY26 revenue, up 23% YoY. Their management literally told the market: “We are running more than 100% utilization.” Translation: They are so busy, they don’t know what to do with all the orders. Yet the stock has spent the last year going nowhere at a -1% return. Why? Because everyone was too busy watching Netflix’s new season to notice that India’s wheel makers are in a supercycle. No FOMO here. Just good old supply and demand, Chandigarh-style.
02 — Introduction
Welcome to the Wheel Game: Where Trump Tariffs Are Bad, But Domestic Demand Is a Hindu God
Steel Strips Wheels is a Chandigarh-based company that makes wheels for cars, trucks, tractors, and pretty much anything else with an axle. Founded in 1985, it’s been quietly turning raw steel into round metal discs for three decades while the market was obsessed with apps, crypto, and semiconductors.
The business is refreshingly boring: buy steel (or aluminium for the fancy variant), shape it at plants in Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Jharkhand, and Punjab, slap a tyre on it, and sell to OEMs like Maruti, Tata Motors, Hyundai, and Mahindra. That’s it. No pivot. No “platform play.” Just wheels.
Here’s the plot twist: India’s commercial vehicle market, tractor segment, and passenger car OEMs are all in a simultaneous growth cycle. Capacity utilization is through the roof. Management literally said they are running at “more than 100% utilization” — which is corporate speak for “we are overworking our staff and equipment but pretending it’s fine.” And yet, this company has been building additional capacity, acquiring competitors (AMW), and launching new products (aluminium steering knuckles for EVs). Meanwhile, ₹300–400 crore of high-margin U.S. export revenue evaporated because Trump decided tariffs were cool again.
Q3 FY26 was the highest revenue quarter in living memory. The stock? Down 4% in 3 months. Welcome to equity markets.
Concall Reality Check (Jan 2026): Management stated: “Record monthly sales in Nov & Dec… demonstrates the resilience of our diversified approach.” They also said: “Aluminum wheels are now 36% of our revenue and we are completely sold out.” Meaning they are leaving money on the table because they can’t make wheels fast enough. That’s not a problem. That’s a luxury.
03 — Business Model: WTF Do They Even Do?
They Make Wheels. For Literally Everything. And They’re Really Good At It.
Steel Strips operates two main product lines: steel wheel rims (63% of revenue) and alloy wheel rims (36% of revenue). The company has installed capacity of 20.5 million steel wheels and 5 million alloy wheels across four plants, running at 75% and 73% capacity respectively—which sounds fine until management says they’re at “more than 100% utilization.” Welcome to the ambiguity between theoretical and practical capacity.
Revenue breakdown: passenger vehicles (51%), commercial vehicles (24%), tractors (12%), two/three-wheelers (2%). They dominate domestic market share—34% in passenger cars, 52% in heavy commercial vehicles, 42% in tractors, 39% in two-wheelers. The only thing stopping them from buying a second Chandigarh HQ is the fact that U.S. exports collapsed from 44% to 13% of their export mix due to Trump’s tariffs.
But here’s the kicker: Europe now accounts for 52% of exports (up from 20% two years ago), and management has already received ₹300 crore in orders from European OEMs for a 5-year contract starting CY2027. They’re also launching aluminum steering knuckles for EVs—a business expected to hit ₹100 crore+ by next year. Not exactly revolutionary, but directionally smart.
Passenger Vehicles34%Market Share
Heavy Comm. Vehicles52%Market Share
Tractors42%Market Share
Two/Three-Wheelers39%Market Share
The Raw Material Pass-Through Magic: Management dropped a bombshell in the concall: “Raw material is a pass-through.” Aluminum prices reset every 3 months based on previous 3-month rates. Steel is the same. This means SSWL’s margin security is actually strong—they’re not holding the bag when aluminium prices spike. The catch? When prices rise, they pass it through to customers with a 3-month lag, inflating their revenue without proportional EBITDA growth. Optical pain, but manageable.
💬 Quick question: If management says they’re at “more than 100% utilization,” are they running at 105%? 120%? Or is this corporate speak for “we’re maxed out”? Drop your thoughts—investor skepticism is a feature, not a bug.
04 — Financials Overview
Q3 FY26: The Numbers That Make You Squint
Result type: Quarterly Results | Q3 FY26 EPS: ₹3.13 | Annualised EPS (Q3×4): ₹12.52 | Full-year FY25 EPS: ₹13.38
| Metric (₹ Cr) |
Q3 FY26
Dec 2025 |
Q3 FY25
Dec 2024 |
Q2 FY26
Sep 2025 |
YoY % |
QoQ % |
| Revenue | 1,321 | 1,075 | 1,201 | +23.0% | +10.0% |
| Operating Profit | 128 | 118 | 112 | +8.5% | +14.3% |
| OPM % | 9.7% | 11.0% | 9.3% | -130 bps | +40 bps |
| PAT | 49.2 | 52 | 39 | -5.1% | +26.2% |
| EPS (₹) | 3.13 | 3.30 | 2.45 | -5.1% | +27.8% |
The Mystery of Why EPS Dropped YoY Despite 23% Revenue Growth: Here’s the twist management didn’t shout from the rooftops: profit growth lagged revenue because (a) export mix collapsed (high-margin U.S. business down, lower-margin domestic up as a %), and (b) raw material price volatility inflated the topline without equivalent EBITDA bump. Management revealed: “The lag has come from Trump tariffs.” Aluminium also hit record highs at ₹265–270 per kg in 9M FY26. Yet, sequentially (QoQ), PAT jumped 26% because utilization ramped and fixed costs got spread thinner. Classic cyclical story.
05 — Valuation: Fair Value Range
What’s This Wheel Maker Actually Worth?
