Shivalik Bimetal Controls Ltd (SBCL)

Ghonarbochon · September 15, 2022, 2:49pm

What foxconn-vedanta would be making is the semiconductor chips(Those flat black squares on a circuit board usually biggish) .These are made out of silicon wafer and are products of extreme miniaturization . Smaller and complex chips are harder to make and need massive initial outlay to procure the fabricating machines and expertise.Thats why Vedanta is providing the cash and Foxconn,the tech.

Shunt resistors are basically metal components and is entirely different . Those are also seen on the PCB but do not go inside the chips .Those who can make semicnductor chips won’t stoop to make these .

Check the image in this link…

But if indeed local Chip production results in cheaper chips,then I assume lots of other electronics companies will start making stuff in India. That will only expand Shibaliks domestic market size .

Disc: Have a degree in Electronics but no hands on experience except in labs 17 years ago .

SUNRAY · September 20, 2022, 1:14am

The annual report:

Jay_vaghasia · September 20, 2022, 4:59am

If anyone is attending AGM next tuesday, kindly share AGM notes.

nirvana_laha · September 20, 2022, 6:26am

SBCL has this JV with Aperam Imphy formed in 2008 called Innovative Clad Solutions, where SBCL has 16% stake. The company makes clad metal solutions and the JV has a factory in Pithampur, Madhya Pradesh and this year has shown a 120% growth in revenues Y-o-Y and a 5.5x growth in PAT.

Aperam Imphy is the alloys division of Aperam S.A, which is a 5bn $ company HQ’d in Luxembourg with Lakshmi Mittal as its Chairman.

JV website - https://www.innovativecladsolutions.com/
Aperam Imphy - Imphy - aperam
Aperam website - https://www.aperam.com/

Here’s Innovative Clad Solutions being mentioned on the Aperam Alloys website

I haven’t seen any discussion on this JV on this thread. My question for experienced Shivalik investors is :

Given that the JV has been in place for more than a decade, are there any insights regarding tech transfers in alloy-making that may have happened or are likely to happen from Aperam Imphy to SBCL?
Clad metals find diverse uses outside of the electrical industry in cookware, heat exchangers, energy storage solutions etc. Does SBCL have any plans of tapping these industries?
Does SBCL see the JV as strategically important and have any plans to increase their share in the JV?

Since some people are planning to go to the AGM, this maybe something worth asking?

SUNRAY · September 20, 2022, 1:19pm

The switch to clean transport in the South Asian nation is slower than the US and China in part due to the sluggish adoption of battery-powered vehicles. The high cost of these vehicles and insufficient charging stations are a major barrier with NEF saying that by 2040, 53% of new automobile sales in India will be electric, well behind China with 77%.

Banks in India have been reluctant to give loans for EV purchases at a time when the cost of insuring these vehicles is high and the resale market is remains small, said Kant, who was recently appointed India’s main negotiator when it becomes the chair for the Group of 20 countries in December.

tanishq · September 21, 2022, 3:02am

Another big supply to the same enterprise in just a gap of 3 days.
Last time, it was just ‘thermostatic bimetal’ but now shows thermostatic bimetal ’ trimetal ’ Parts. Above is an example of how they are able to cross sell more of their Products to existing clients efficiently. Haven’t seen these kind of volumes in this segment.

Very limited data but things look very Positive for the company in such a volatile global environment!

Aluwalia · September 23, 2022, 1:54pm

The date of commencement of employment of Mr. Kabir not matching with his age and number years of experience, as per AR. May be typing error.

Donald · September 25, 2022, 6:23pm

10 Prioritised Questions for Shivalik Bimetal AGM
(Thanks for collated collaborative efforts from @nirvana_laha @GourabPaul @spatel @Chins)

1. Competitive Positioning

Automotive EV BMS Market for Shunts is reportedly served by only 6-7 vendors globally. Isabellenhuette commands 50% market share. Shivalik Bimetal is now close to ~10-15% market share as per some Industry players.

Is it a fair argument to say that Bimetal (Alloy)/EBW expertise is the KEY differentiator for this segment, which is augmented by Shivalik’s cost leadership position. And that Shivalik is de-facto cost leader today, globally?

Is Shivalik growing by progressively taking away market share from top incumbents like Isabellenhuette, Hella, Continental and others like Rohm and Panasonic.

2. SBCL JV with Aparam Infy - Innovative Clad Solutions (SBCL stake 16%)

Given that the JV has been in place for more than a decade, are there any insights regarding tech transfers in alloy-making that may have happened or are likely to happen from Aperam Imphy to SBCL?
a) Clad metals find diverse uses outside of the electrical industry in cookware, heat exchangers, energy storage solutions etc. Does SBCL have any plans of tapping these industries?
b) Does SBCL see the JV as strategically important and have any plans to increase their share in the JV?

3. New big-name Customers in Bimetal segment (38% Exports)

Cutler Hammer
Fenix Manufacturing
Robertshaw Controls

New customer wins contributing ~20%?

Would you like to us through some of these recent wins that seem to have scaled up significantly. What helped us gain entry and penetrate deeper so quickly in these – bimetal alloy improvements/customisation?

4. Recent Customer Losses?

Sensus DUB used to be a large Bimetal customer of Shivalik till 2020, and stopped thereafter? Did the company get winded up/merged into some other entity, or it has shifted to other vendors, reasons?

Landis GYR Meters, Wieland Werke – large customers in EBW Shunts stopped after 2020? Comments

5. Non-BMS Shunts in EV/Battery Space

a) Are any of the shunt strips going to a standalone current sensor module which is integrated to the BMS
b) Are your shunts being used in inverters, dc-dc, electric motors in an EV. Scope for OEM supply?
c) Is there a medium-term vision towards making a current sensor module in-house for 2W and 3W markets in India. If not, what are the impediments towards that? Reportedly, that’s a 5x value-addition?

6. EBW Shunt Segment (62% Exports)

Vishay
Shin Shih
TT Electronics
EMH Metering
Bimetal Japan

Top 5 contribution 90%
Top 3 contribution 80%

Top Customer concentration has been steadily reducing, but there is still a huge dependency ~90% contribution from Top 5 customers?

What is the right way to look at this situation from Management Perspective/Targets?
a) What is the ideal segment mix EBW Shunts: Bimetals: Smart metering given industry tailwinds in next 3-5 years
b) what is the ideal diversified customer mix SBCL is looking at in 3-5 years

Have we seen instances of direct supply to OEMs/Tier 1 Vendors scaling up? Does that remain a distinct possibility, or supply will mostly be through Tier2 vendors?

7. Smart Meter Opportunity

Globally US $36 Bn by 2028 growing at 8% CAGR
India replacement Market – 250 Cr Legacy Meters
4.8 Mn smart Meter Installed base (as on date) of 11.6 Mn tendered Jan ‘22

Would you like to characterise this segment opportunity for us – Industry tailwinds, Shivalik Competitive Positioning in India and Globally, major competitors and customers.

8. Shivalik Product positioning – Proxy play/beneficiary of major market shifts?

ICE to EV
Legacy Meters to Smart Meters

Fuel Dispenser to Charging Station
Fossil Fuel to Renewable Energy
(Battery Storage, Switchgear current ammeters; Isabellenhuette works in this space)

This is an interesting perspective from an astute industry observer. Other major market shifts happening - say Wired to Wireless, and Manual to Robots. Does Shivalik see a place for its products in other such market shifts?

What is the Management’s perspective on the product space it wants to occupy?

9. EBW Shunts and Hall Effect Sensors

Mercedes uses only Shunts for EVs
Mercedes uses both Hall Effect sensors and Shunts sensors in Hybrid EVs

Could you give us a better sense of how this sensor type/usage decisions are firming up. Is this a settled case in favour of Shunts, or use cases for usage of both sensor types are going to prevail going forward too in Automotive applications.

10. Lead Times
Shunts lead time today standing at 40 weeks?? (as per some industry players)

Good thing for now? May lead to surplus capacity investment leading to a glut situation again – couple of years down the line?

Would you care to throw more light on this aspect, what is Management’s perspective?

Donald · September 27, 2022, 4:40am

One question answered

Donald · September 27, 2022, 4:06pm

Top high level updates only, for now (Travelling)
(Getting too many calls, so here’s a quick take )

16% Market share in Bimetals
JV With Arcelor company with 16% stake - has been instrumental - in Bimetals tech/process upgrades
10-15% Market share in Shunts. When pressed, if closer to 10, confirmed its higher
Europe 5G installation/rollout phase - Shunts required - Shivalik delivered quick solution, likely to be the de-facto choice. One-time orders - only during installation phase; not required post installation
Shivalik is the Ref Standard for couple of products; Ref standard means other vendors are asked to deliver to Shivalik produced specifications - to be considered for orders
Exclusive supplier to a major Bimetals customer - pushed by the company to deliver unique customised solution
Global cost leadership confirmation. Added that they are also known for the fastest response times. (there is a 3rd global lead attribute - will check and add from notes)
EV Shunts opportunity is not possible to quantify as it is still to play out. They are preparing certainly to be in the best position to harness/exploit the opportunity. 8x to 16x shunt requirements in EV than ICE BMS. Domestic EV will certainly be dominated by Shivalik once it opens up.
Should a huge opportunity come knocking suddenly, they will be able to put up enhanced capacities at much faster rates than competition - 1/2 the time Competition will take, as they have the complete value chain in-house - in-house custom design ability for automated machinery and inline automated inspection process
Largest capacity for Shunts globally (already). Another 60% expansion in next 2 years. Expansions based on 3-4 year forecasts from Customers
Company developed product/solution for a US Customer (on their sustained insistence) in 18 months. Earlier monopoly supplier dictated both price and delivery timeframes. Post product/solution delivery, it was revealed by customer that the earlier company took 4 years to develop the same product.
Hall Effect vs Shunts usage in EV - Settled in favour of Shunts mostly. Very rarely you run across Hall Effect sensors. One customer who approached Shivalik and converted (Hall Effect to Shunts) was because they were not able to find a good reliable cost effective Shunts supplier
Top 5 do not command more than 50%. Company’s avowed policy is to not let individual customers be bigger than 10% Sales. Having said that, if there is fresh big opportunity, company would evaluate the trade-offs afresh
Company is operating 3 shifts per day
Above was top of mind.
Additional Notes after consulting my scribbled notes
Company products meet stringent Automotive AECQ200 Norms - mechanical automotive parts tested for 1 year; electronic parts tested for 3 years.
Welded joints on Bimetals is critical for switchgear. Bimetal lasts 100 years, but life of product is determined by the quality of the welded joints. Uniquely developed for a major EU customer. This is from the wholly owned subsidiary They also make Brazed contacts which are unique products
Shunt SMDs used in all Motors of advanced cars
Shivalik shunts/solution is the Industry standard for cooling applications for car engine
Company themselves surprised by the growth in Bimetals. US is a very large market for Bimetals. Has been a mature product for 10 years - but good one for quality products at the right price. When quizzed if these kind of heady growth in BM could taper off after 2-3-4 years, response was “could be”
Lead times can be large for some of the competitors for some of the products as much as 50-54 weeks. For Shivalik none of the products lead time is that long. Highest is about 20 weeks or so and ranges form 2-3 weeks.

There you go, thats the unfolding story!
Thanks for everyone’s help - in asking great questions at the AGM.
Management gave a lot of time and answered every legitimate question

PS: Refined with the benefit of my scribbled Notes. But there could be mistakes. Others, please point to/correct inadvertent mistakes, if any, from my side. Could be my excitement …if I got some things majorly off

dd1474 · September 28, 2022, 1:59am

Just few additions to Donald Exhaustive pointers from my side:
1 While 5G opprotunity may turn out to be large, it would be one time demand and not recurring business.
2 The company decided to invest specifically in R&D efforts and in process to set up dedicated R&D facility in Solan
3 Majority of company sales is customised and hence they need to understand client requirment and accordingly set production paramters and equipment. Due to inhouse capabilities and understanding, even the manufacuturing equipment it installed are kind of customised and has great amount of input from management. Hence, replacing that set-up with only financial resource to replicate would be very difficult.
4 The customer trust Shivalik for quality, reliability and transparency. In history of operations, there are no instance when client has faced any production break down. Only one instance, where management of Shivalik got early warning, they ensure that critical inputs are delivered to client and one of director personally delivered those input to client factory.
5 The company managment is confident about maintaining contribution margin even despite high volatality in input materials. Most of agreements have clause of passing on volatility in raw material to customers. Hence the company can manage the margin.
6 The current infrastructure can support one more building. Post that expansion the company many need to look for new land for development. They have in past acquired land for expansion. However, that land lost material portion of approach from highway due to road cutting and hence now not suitable for factory set up. The managment is in process to sale that land and hence same land is appearing as invesment in balancesheet.
7 The company has been utilised new technologies and state of art equipments along with automation to minimise product standard deviation.
8 There was visible change in top managment attitude towards delegation of power among second line of professional and new generation family members. The recent expansion in capacity involved significant participation from second generations of family which is a positive gesture for future business growth in my understanding.

Disclosure: Among my top 2 holdings. My view may be positively biased due to my holding. Not a SEBI registered advisor. Not recommending any investment action.

Donald · September 28, 2022, 2:19am

The Body language, transparency and willingness to discuss business strengths/opportunities, the assured confidence (no arrogance) from Management was palpable for everyone…was more like “apna time aayega” …actually “apna time aa gaya hai”.

Time for some sanity checks to cut through the unmistakable euphoria felt by every investor present in AGM. On the scuttlebutt side I met a couple of long time shareholders in Shivalik with interesting inputs.

Despite all that Jazz on inline inspection automation, no human intervention, cleanliness, high accuracy, zero defects, et al, there are product recalls/refurbishments.

This is something for us to probe/pursue further with Management and Scuttlebutts

Shivalik factory is a single point of failure is understood/factored-in by Investors. Being located in the Kangra Valley it is also prone to seismic activity. There was huge devastation last time round

This I take with a healthy dose of salt. When probed further on when was the last large scale seismic devastation, it was stated as many many decades back.

Actually dates back to 1905.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/24069452

Again a Management perspective would be nice to have

Worldlywiseinvestors · September 28, 2022, 10:51am

Shivalik Bi-Metals AGM Update:-

Here are the notes from the 38th AGM of Shivalik Bi-Metals:-

Current business mix is 50% for Shunts and 50% for Bi metals. Overall end usage is:-

30% for Auto, 30% for switchgears, 40% distributed. Last year, 47% of growth was contributed by volumes.

On Pricing: Enter into contracts based on pricing of raw materials of previous month’s average or last quarters average. Thus, able to maintain the margins.
In last 36 years of business, no customer has came close to shutting down their lines due to non supply of products from Shivalik. Once the situation was extremely close, one of the directors went in his car to deliver the products.
One of the customers even hired a private jet, as he needed the Shunts to be delivered to China for the launch of his new vehicle.
Shivalik has become the reference standard of the industry. Most of the customers are new to shunts. Shivalik does the handholding process.
Shunts are used both in Electric vehicles and Electric Vehicle Chargers. Usage of Shunts in EV is 8-16x that of normal ICE vehicle BMS.
Domestically, we are already dominant with the supply of shunts to the local customers. Supplying to Tata and Mahindra already. Problem is low adoption of EV’s. Last month barely 4k EV cars were sold.
Long term stability is the most important in shunts. As life of shunts is forever and there is no replacement demand. We supply the most stable shunts in the world.
In a nutshell: most reliable, lowest cost, most stable shunt suppliers in the world.
Current market share:- more than 10% in Shunts in the world, which we expect to increase in the coming years. In Bimetals current market share is 16% and it can grow till 22%.
Surprised with the growth seen in Bimetals. Bimetals, expecting growth to be strong for next 2-3 years. Bimetals, have finally landed customers in USA, and have added new clients in this business division.
3 years back the large customers with whom we won approvals for Shunts. Have finally started. Seeing increasing off-takes from them and increasing engagement.
Can potentially forward integrate into Current Sensing modules from Shunt Resistors. This is the natural progression. These products are already under the works.
Some customers are using Shunts, and some use Hall effect sensors. Shunts are more advantageous. The users of Hall effect sensors use the product because they don’t have a reliable supplier of shut at the moment. Even our largest customer came to us using the Hall effect because he didn’t have a reliable supplier of Shunts before.
75% of the products are custom made for customers. Customers invest in the tooling kit due to this, they keep coming back.
Inline products test, invested in automation to keep checking the quality of shunts being produced, and no human intervention. These investments are done not to cut costs, but to improve quality. (No process that can ensure no product recalls or defects, spoke to some former shareholders and asked the management directly). Primarily invested in end of the line automation. Can make shunts to as small as +/- 1 micron.
Shivalik vs Competitors:-

A) In one of the products asked by our customers. Competitor took 4 years to develop vs 18months for us.

B) Lead time for competitors is 50-54 weeks. Our lead time is substantially lower.

C) Won a contract for 5G SMD against one of our competitors by improving the design and made it cheaper. This is a large, one time business. Won’t be recurring.

Products:

Thermostatic Bimetals:

Majorly used in the automotive cooling applications. Cooling fan used to consume 20% of engine’s energy earlier. This product sense the temperature and turns the fan off/on. Saving fuel and engine’s energy.

Expanded a lot in American markets for this product, expect growth here too in spite of it being a mature product.

Wholly owned subsidiary makes Brared contacts and welded contacts. These are used in switchgears, one of the customers forced them to develop this product,

EBW Shunts:

Used in Electronic metres. Shunts even here have multiple advantages over hall effect sensors.

Other uses (Plating shunts): when vehicle stops, battery goes off. Even ICE engine cars have battery management systems. Requires a sensors as well.

In other products such as rivets or Silver inlays competition is high.

JV: 16% with ArcelorMittal. No plans to enhance participation. Has helped them though.

On Expansions:

-Currently working in 3 shifts (24 hours)
-Expanded capacity 2x in last 3 years. Plan to further expand it by 60% in next 2 years.
-From 25,000 meters to 40,000 meters (feel free to correct if the metric of measuring is wrong, or its metric).
-Current infrastructure can support one more building. Post that company needs to look for a new piece of land.
-Setting up a dedicated R&D team. R&D Spend will go up, earlier R&D was managed by Production team only. Require a separate team now due to the growing size of the business.

Disclosure: invested. Top 7 position for me. Not sebi registered. No trasactions in last 30 days.

VINAYAK_MOHTA · September 28, 2022, 1:33pm

The Growth here has been Quite good on the Profits and the Revenues front. The Company is further going ahead with Capacity Expansions of further 60%.
The Competitors here are based out of China, UK and Germany where for all we know there are some or the other problems going on. Shivalik in the Midst of this is sitting at a very sweet spot to take advantage of such Opportunities. Being the Lowest Cost Producer with an Efficient Manufacturing Process leading to Low Lead times to delivery Stickiness within New Customer Base should be High.
I however had a Few Questions regarding the Opportunity Size and Growth here, It would be great if the community could throw some light on the same:

1- Assuming the Company has 12% Market Share in the Stunts Global Market the entire market size is a mere 1320 Crores. (Is that Correct). Further given EV’s have come into Adoption in the Developed World much more than India and Other Emerging Countries has the component Growth at a Very Fast Pace? Any Idea on the Growth in Market Size here?) Also How fast do you think this Industry is Growing? [There is no doubt that the Opportunity is Very Large but just wanted to understand the Near to Medium Term Picture]
2- Any Guidance that the Company has given with Regards to Growth and Margins for the Next 2-4 years? Given Margins have expanded substantially are they sustainable?
3- Possible Impact on Growth because of Issues being seen in US and Europe?

Looking forward to the Answers. Thank you in advance.

ankit_tripathi · September 29, 2022, 5:49am

As New Scrappage Policy (May or may not) kick in and End products where shunts are used are getting replaced . At times PCBs are replaced to rectify Faults in System. Demand for new shunts kicks in.
Shunts will have annuity nature of business indirectly.

Worldlywiseinvestors · September 29, 2022, 4:27pm

Trend of EV’s domestically, Estimate of 4k sales a month seems about right as said by the management in the AGM.

India's Electric Vehicle Sales Trend | July 2022 • EVreporter.

Sat · September 29, 2022, 6:24pm

I was trying to guesstimate the market size for resistors, to start with, I have picked up the relatively easier market of smart metering in India. Going by this article and several other news items, there seems to be a plan to replace 25 crore meters in India. Since I am from non-electrical background, I relied heavily on topology diagrams of smart meters to get a sense of the number of resistors needed in a smart meter. Here are a a couple of articles that have helped - white paper, smart meter topology. Resistors used for current sensing should be of low value (2 ohms or so, relied on google for this) and the price of these resistors is around 15 rupees. The smart meter national programme targets to deploy these meters by 2025 as per this article.
Here is the current status of the smart metering programme - dashboard. So far, 60 lakh meters have been installed, including pending it shows the total as 1 crore meters. With this pace, we may not be able to achieve the target of 25 crores by the end of 2025.
Let’s assume 15 crore meters are deployed by the end of 2025.
Putting all the assumptions together -
Market size - 15 crore meters * 3 resistors (per meter) * 15 = 675 crores (conservative)
Let’s double it to make it the best case estimate - 1350 crores
Assuming the market share of shivalik is 50% - 675 crores (till end of 2025)
Per year - 270 crores sales from smart metering in India.

However, this looks like the best case estimate, esp. given that we have assumed that the govt can deploy 15 crore meters by the end of 2025. And, the 50% market share in India is something that I am not sure of.

Please correct me if you see something wrong with my assumptions.

Marathondreams · October 1, 2022, 6:59am

Record date for Bonus issue is 13th October and hence ex date will be 12th October as per communication received from ICICI direct.

GourabPaul · October 2, 2022, 10:55am

Replacement of the pcb, indirectly will lead to scrappage of the battery. Most of the current sensing modules are built for service life of 15 years

sanjeev_thakur · October 5, 2022, 4:15am

It is a delight to read AGM notes from @Donald @dd1474 @Worldlywiseinvestors. I really thank you all on behalf of the rest of us.

One of the key concerns in the back of my head was the succession plan.

The latest annual report mentions the roles of Mr Kabir Ghumman and Sumer Ghumman, sons of MD. Plus the following snippet from @dd1474 notes.

This puts some of the related concerns to rest. With ageing senior management, we definitely need a smart next-gen who is visibly helping take the company forward.