Usha Martin is the world’s number-one maker of specialty steel wire rope - the high-strength cables that lift, moor, and hoist in places where failure is not an option - and it has spent six decades turning that single product into a global solutions business. The company was born in 1960 when a wire rope plant was set up in Ranchi, India, in partnership with Martin Black of the UK, and it later shed an entire commoditised steel business to focus purely on high-value, mission-critical ropes and wires. The recurring approach is visible in everything that followed: build deep technical capability in one demanding application, earn the certifications that lock out less-invested rivals, then use that credential to win the next, harder job - and repeat that across continents.
Business segments
Three engines built on the same steel-wire backbone - a global wire rope franchise that supplies the world’s toughest lifting jobs, a wires business that turns the same raw material into specialised industrial strands, and a prestressed concrete strand business that reinforces bridges and buildings - plus a young synthetic-rope bet that extends the franchise into offshore energy.
1. Specialty steel wire ropes: the core franchise that lifts the world’s heaviest things
A global leader in wire ropes for cranes, oil rigs, elevators and mines, where every rope is a certified, engineered solution rather than a commodity - and where continuous wear creates built-in replacement demand.
- The widest range, backed by the hardest-to-get certificates - the company makes crane ropes, fishing ropes, mining ropes, anchor mooring ropes, locked coil ropes and more, and it holds approvals from the American Petroleum Institute, Lloyd’s Register, DNV-GL, ABS and over a dozen other national standards bodies, which together act as a barrier to entry in the high-end segments that account for 71% of rope revenue.
- Engineered into the world’s landmark projects - its ropes are installed on the 10,000-ton floating crane Sleipnir, on the hoists of the Three Gorges Dam in China, as locked coil support cables on the Chenab Bridge (the world’s highest railway arch bridge), and on the Pamban Sea Bridge, where they are designed to withstand saline humidity.
- A shift from making ropes locally to shipping them globally - under the “One Usha Martin” programme, the UK facility now focuses exclusively on large-diameter oil-and-offshore ropes, while finished ropes for elevators, cranes, fishing and mining are exported directly from India to European customers, lowering the cost base.
- Capacity that can handle the biggest single reels ever - a recently completed expansion at Ranchi means the plant can now produce the largest single-reel rope in the company’s history, demonstrated with an Oceanmax project in early 2026, and a phased expansion in Thailand is adding further high-value capacity.
- A replacement business dressed as a project business - because wire ropes in critical lifting and mooring applications have a limited safe lifespan, every rope sold eventually needs replacing, creating a recurring revenue stream underneath the large project wins.
2. Wires: the specialty strands that feed industry and infrastructure
High-strength, corrosion-resistant wires sold into automotive, construction and agricultural applications, where input-cost pass-through protects margins and volumes are growing fast.
- A portfolio built around specific industrial jobs - the range includes GALSTAR zinc-aluminium alloy wire for Geo Hazard, Agriculture and Automotive industry, welding wire, spring wire for auto components, cold-heading-quality wire for fasteners, and extra-high-strength strands for bridges and infrastructure.
- Cost increases flow straight through to the customer - unlike businesses that absorb raw-material swings, the wire segment passes input cost increases on, which shields margins when steel or gas prices move.
- Volume growth that outpaces the rest of the company - wire sales volumes reached 53 thousand metric tonnes in the latest year, with segment revenue up roughly 24%, making it the fastest-growing part of the portfolio.
3. LRPC strands: the tendons inside concrete structures
Prestressed concrete steel strands that reinforce bridges, buildings and infrastructure - a segment where a newer corrosion-resistant variant is being readied for the next leg of growth.
- The full system, not just the strand - the company supplies complete prestressing packages that include the LRPC strand, anchorage accessories and prestressing equipment for both pre-tensioning and post-tensioning jobs.
- Plasticated and galvanised strands for harsh environments - a newer, maturing product line of plastic-coated and galvanised LRPC targets demand for corrosion-resistant reinforcement in bridges and coastal infrastructure, and the platform is now built for scale-up.
- Margins protected by the same pass-through logic - as in wires, input cost increases are passed through to customers, insulating the segment from raw-material volatility.
4. Oceanfibre: the synthetic-rope bet on offshore energy
A young, non-steel product line of high-performance synthetic slings for offshore wind and energy, built on the company’s testing infrastructure and customer relationships - still small, with scale expected from 2027 onward.
- A first move beyond steel - Oceanfibre synthetic slings, developed at the Brunton Shaw UK facility, use high-performance HMPE yarns and are tested on the company’s own 2,000-tonne test bed, the same equipment that validates its steel wire ropes.
- Capacity is in place, customers are being approved - the company has about 6,000 tonnes per annum of synthetic sling capacity and is investing in product development and customer approvals, with meaningful commercial volumes expected in the next financial year and beyond.
Global manufacturing and R&D infrastructure
Five plants, two R&D centres and a captive power source - the physical backbone that lets one company serve over 70 countries with certified, high-specification ropes and wires.
- Five wire rope factories on three continents - manufacturing sites in Ranchi, Hoshiarpur, Dubai, Bangkok and Worksop (UK) are equipped with high-capacity machines, with Ranchi alone spread over more than 100 acres and recognised as one of the world’s largest wire rope facilities.
- A design centre in Italy that acts as the technical brain - the Global Design Centre in Concesio has over 40 years of rope-design experience, uses proprietary software, and works directly with customers and universities to engineer products for the most demanding applications.
- Lean manufacturing with environmental teeth - practices like Total Productive Maintenance and Kaizen run across all plants, while a 4 MWp rooftop solar installation is underway at Ranchi, waste oil and water are recycled back into production, and the company is targeting a 50% cut in freshwater withdrawal by 2030.
Group structure and partners
A parent company in India with wholly owned manufacturing and distribution subsidiaries stretching from Houston to Singapore, plus two joint ventures that extend the product range into automotive wire and stressing systems.
- European operations centred on the UK and the Netherlands - Usha Martin International Limited owns the Brunton Shaw rope plant in Worksop, a rigging and servicing operation in Rotterdam, and the global growth centre is located in Spain, and it is the largest manufacturer of bespoke rigging in Europe.
- A Dubai hub with a new Saudi joint venture - Brunton Wire Ropes FZCo in the Jebel Ali Free Zone serves the Middle East, and in 2023 it formed a step-down joint venture in Saudi Arabia to manufacture and distribute wire ropes and slings locally.
- Asia Pacific distribution through Singapore - Usha Martin Singapore runs warehousing and distribution for the region, with step-down subsidiaries in Australia, Vietnam and Indonesia.
- Two Indian joint ventures that fill adjacent niches - a 40% stake in Pengg Usha Martin produces oil-tempered wire for automotive springs, and a near-50% stake in CCL Usha Martin makes stressing systems for construction.