This Indian company believes it may benefit from US tariffs on other countries

Azad Engineering Ltd., the manufacturer of fabricated metal products, believes that the looming tariff crisis globally may make their situation better as they are very competitive compared to countries where the tariffs are likely to be imposed.In an interaction with CNBC-TV18 on Wednesday, March 5, Azad Engineering’s Executive Director Vishnu Malpani said that India is already 20% to 25% more competitive than China and about 30% to 35% more competitive from the rest of the world.

US President Donald Trump sparked a broad tariff war over the last two days by imposing a 25% tariff on goods coming in from Canada and Mexico

and an additional 10% tariffs on Chinese imports. The situation escalated when both Canada and China announced counter measures by imposing tariffs on US products.
However, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told Fox Business in an interview that the President may consider arriving at a middle ground on tariffs when it comes to Canada and Mexico, although he did not offer any clarity on how will that happen.
Malpani said that India may only get reciprocal tariffs, which are likely to be lower but for other geographies that Azad Engineering competes with, the tariffs are pretty heavy.”And with these tariffs on China, Mexico and other places, I think Azad’s order book is only going to get flooded. This is what we understand from our customers also because our customers are more aggressively trying to tell us to put up more capacity to do this,” Malpani said.

Malpani also maintained that Azad Engineering will grow between 25% to 30% in financial year 2025, which is also the earlier guidance that the management had shared. “We don’t see any pressure on the margins either,” he added.

Azad Engineering recently concluded a Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP), through which it managed to raise ₹700 crore. Nomura, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) and a clutch of domestic funds were issued shares as part of this exercise. The company will use the proceeds to build infrastructure and use it as growth capital.

Shares of Azad Engineering are currently trading 6% higher at ₹1,334.8. The stock is down 35% from its peak.