Sundram Fasteners is fundamentally a company that makes the metal bits that hold vehicles together - bolts, nuts, shafts, and gears - but it has evolved into something far stickier: a precision-engineering partner whose components are so deeply embedded in customers’ assembly lines that, once chosen, it becomes uneconomical for an automaker to ever switch suppliers. Born in 1962 in Chennai as a pure fastener maker within the TVS Group, the company spent six decades moving up the value chain into complex forged and machined parts, becoming India’s largest fastener manufacturer with a 35%-40% market share along the way. The recurring approach that explains everything else is this: win a spot on a global OEM’s approved-vendor list through obsessive quality, then deepen the relationship by making more of the vehicle’s critical metal components until the company is effectively a captive, irreplaceable extension of the customer’s own factory floor.
Business segments
A single precision-engineering engine, organised around how it reaches the customer - directly to vehicle assembly lines at home and abroad, and through a retail network that puts the same factory parts into mechanics’ hands.
1. High-tensile fasteners and precision components: the irreplaceable supplier to the world’s engine bays
Sundram Fasteners makes the fasteners, shafts, gears, pumps and powder-metal parts that go directly into a vehicle’s engine and drivetrain - components where a failure would stop the vehicle dead, which is why OEMs treat the supply relationship as “cast in stone.”
- Designed-in, not just sold in - every product is engineered to an individual OEM’s specification and integrated into the assembly of the end vehicle, so replacing Sundram Fasteners would mean re-engineering the production line; even if a rival offers a lower price, the OEM will not change the source.
- The largest fastener maker in India - with a domestic market share of 35%-40%, the company is the “to-go choice” for customers and the first call for new product development, which means its order books are full and its development teams are constantly busy with new work.
- Steel costs passed through to the customer - major domestic OEM contracts have a contractual pass-through arrangement for raw-material price increases, while export contracts are linked to American metal-market prices rather than Indian steel costs, insulating the company from commodity swings.
- Six verticals under one roof - the company runs six main manufacturing verticals spanning cold forging, hot and warm forging, powder metallurgy, machining, and assembly across 18 plants in India, so it can offer an OEM a basket of unrelated metal components without the customer needing to manage multiple suppliers.
- Quality that wins awards, not just certificates - the company operates a “can’t make the defect” system backed by Poka-Yoke (mistake-proofing) measures, and its plants have won supplier-of-the-year awards from General Motors for the tenth time, plus zero-defect awards from John Deere, SKF and DAF Trucks.
2. Exports: riding the world’s heavy engines while EVs come for the light ones
Roughly a quarter of turnover comes from outside India, weighted towards high-horsepower diesel engines - power generation, marine, and heavy commercial vehicles - where electrification is not an immediate threat.
- Sheltered from the EV transition - the export book is tilted towards high-horsepower engines for power generation and marine applications, segments where battery-electric replacement is decades away, so the company’s overseas revenue is not exposed to the same electrification risk as passenger-car suppliers.
- A three-country manufacturing footprint - wholly-owned factories in the UK and China, plus a US subsidiary, produce fasteners and precision forgings for their regional markets; the UK plant serves the commercial-vehicle market and has “turned around completely,” while the China plant is profitable and being backward-integrated to mirror the Indian parent’s capabilities.
- American EV makers are already customers - the company’s forging factory exports to large EV manufacturers in the US and has added new machining lines for connecting rods and wheel-bearing parts, meaning the EV transition is also a growth lever, not just a risk.
3. Aftermarket: the same factory parts, sold through 185 dealer counters
About a tenth of sales come from the retail aftermarket, where the company sells the same OEM-spec fasteners and components to mechanics and spare-parts shops through a network of 185 distributors across every Indian state.
- Brand equity that pulls demand - the company’s reputation as the OEM supplier makes it the “to-go choice” in the aftermarket as well, because a mechanic replacing a critical engine fastener wants the same part the factory used.
- Pricing power where OEM contracts have none - unlike the pass-through arrangements with automakers, the aftermarket allows the company to calibrate prices based on competitive conditions, giving it a margin lever that the OEM business does not provide.
- Inventory positioned close to demand - the company maintains depots in India and overseas, so retail customers get factory parts without the lead times of a made-to-order OEM supply chain.
4. New engines of growth: wind, rail, defence and EVs
The company is using its metallurgy and precision-forging know-how to enter adjacent markets - wind-energy fasteners, railway components, defence parts, and EV-specific products - where the engineering demands are high and the customer qualification process creates the same kind of sticky moat it already enjoys in automotive.
- Wind and aerospace fasteners already shipping - the company has started exporting fasteners for the wind segment and also makes aerospace fasteners; a dedicated wind-energy fasteners project was almost ready to get commissioned and was expected to begin generating revenue from the end of Q4 FY24.
- Railways through tenders and retail - the company is supplying fasteners for railway applications, channelising some through its existing retail partners and directly bidding on government tenders, with a current hit rate of about 20%.
- EV contracts worth over ₹350 crores in the pipeline - the company has been awarded contracts worth ₹150 crores for EV products and expects to sign contracts worth over ₹200 crores for new EV products; a new plant at Sri City is supplying hybrid and EV components to a major European customer, and expansion for a North American EV customer is underway.
Group structure and partners
Sundram Fasteners sits inside the TVS Group with a 46.95% promoter holding, and has absorbed sister companies to bring defence, aerospace and supply-chain capabilities in-house.
- Promoter reclassification underway - the holding company TVS Sundram Fasteners Private Limited holds 46.95%; in recent years, several TVS Group entities have been reclassified from “Promoter” to “Public” category, and the Board has approved applications to reclassify three more promoter-group companies, subject to stock-exchange approval.
- Two amalgamations consolidated adjacent capabilities - in 2024, the company absorbed Sunfast TVS Limited (non-auto supply-chain and job-work) and TVS Engineering Limited (defence and aerospace components), widening its product offering to strategic customers and eliminating duplicate entities.
- A web of wholly-owned and majority-owned subsidiaries - the company directly owns TVS Upasana Limited (spokes, nipples, cold-extruded parts), Sundram Fasteners Investments Limited, and international trading arms in the UK and USA; it holds majority stakes in a renewable-energy company and in TVS Next Limited, an IT services firm serving manufacturing and automotive clients in India and the USA.