Venus Pipes & Tubes: On the way to becoming India’s largest manufacturer of stainless steel pipes and tubes

Venus Pipes & Tubes, established in December 2015 by Arun Kothari, Mahesh Chaudhary, Jitendra Chaudhary, and Dhruv Patel, has been dedicated to the manufacturing of a diverse range of seamless and welded stainless steel pipes. The company offers welded pipes with an extensive outer diameter range of 9 mm to 1,460 mm, while seamless pipes are provided with outer diameters ranging from 6 mm to 219 mm.
With its manufacturing facility strategically located in Kutch region of Gujarat, close to Mundra and Kandla Port, Venus ensures good logistical efficiency in exporting its products around the globe. In the years since its founding, the Indian company has earned the trust of many customers and experienced unprecedented growth. A major expansion was completed in 2023 reaching to the annual capacity of 36,000 tons per annum with backward integrated seamless plant.
“We raised the funds for the huge expansion by the IPO in Summer 2022. In addition to the four founders, the shareholders of Venus Pipes & Tubes today include well-known financial institutions from India and worldwide.
Venus has invested in the technology and equipment to expand both seamless and welded pipe capacities simultaneously” says Arun Kothari, CEO of Venus.

Major investments

The planned expansion for the new backward integration and product portfolio enhancement was completed within record time of 18 months in autumn 2023. Today Venus has capacity around 1,000 tonnes of seamless pipes and 2,000 tonnes of welded pipes every month from India’s largest Welded Stainless Steel Tubemill. These quantities were made possible by the new systems. A gap in the market that Venus recognized was large diameter stainless steel pipes, so it invested in a stainless steel LSAW plate welding system by JCO press. Dhruv Patel explains: “This is a plate welding system with a 2,000-ton JCO press that creates a bend through repeated, targeted pressing of the stainless steel plates. Stainless steel pipes with a wall thickness of up to 50 mm can be produced and this gap in the market can be closed. The maximum production capacity of the LSAW system is pipes with an outer diameter of 1,456 mm and a thickness of 50 mm and a length of 12 meters. These giant stainless-steel pipes are commonly used for cross-country pipelines and oilfield pipes.”
The vertical hot rolling mill was undoubtedly an important investment for the piercing process in the production of seamless pipes. “We can now produce mother hollows ourselves, i.e. the raw material for seamless pipes,” says Dhruv Patel happily. In addition, new, larger pilger lines, an expander and drawing benches were added to enable the entire manufacturing process of seamless pipes up to a diameter of 219 mm to be represented. “Thanks to this wide range of technical production facilities, Venus Pipes & Tubes has established itself as a kind of one-stop shop for stainless steel pipes in India,” emphasizes Mr. Patel.
Incidentally, in-house mother hollow production offers several advantages, he points out other important aspects: “This allows us to guarantee all customers security in the form of material origin. Our input materials are also of Indian origin, which is the basis for the reliable partnership with customers. The quality is ensured with the ‘100% Made in India’ label and certification.”

Expertise: Stainless Steel

Venus is proud of its ‘100% Made in India’ products. From Raw material to finish, we provide complete documents and transparency to the clients. The raw materials are mainly supplied by local Indian suppliers with a good reputation or by renowned international producers. The young, rapidly growing company is very proud to be the largest stainless steel pipe manufacturer in India. “Stainless steel is our expertise,” confirms Dhruv Patel.
Instead, investments are being made not only in increasing capacity, but also in quality. In addition to a very sophisticated ultrasonic testing setup, a fully auto German-made RTR (Digital Radiography) system was purchased for the testing welding quality of LSAW pipes. A new central lab is setup for centralizing all testings. “Venus is relying more and more on European quality and know-how for the production of state-of-the-art products of the highest quality,” says Stefan Müller-Bernhardt.

Environmental Responsibility

This care is also noticeable in Venus’ environmental awareness. Environmentally friendly production processes should be established.
Mr. Müller-Bernhardt explains “Last year, Venus invested significant amount in an Acid Regeneration Plant. Making us the first Indian Stainless Steel Pipe manufacturer having such system. This system ensures we are reusing as much pickling acid as possible.”
It is also planned to convert the gas annealing furnaces to electrical induction in order to further reduce the plant’s CO2 emissions. A solar park with an output of 1.3 MW is scheduled to go into operation at the beginning of March. Around 60 percent of Venus Pipes & Tubes’ current energy needs are to be covered by solar power. And another system with the same performance is already being planned. Until CBAM is introduced, Venus will be able to run entirely on renewable energy.
Mr Müller-Bernhardt is confident that Venus Pipes & Tubes will be a largely green company given the financial impact of CBAM and can offer attractive CBAM taxes to its customers. The Indian government has now started a similar carbon emissions project, but regardless of this, Venus also wants to voluntarily show the market how to produce in an environmentally friendly way.

Employees at the center

Safety is very important in all areas of Venus Pipes & Tubes. You won’t find an employee without a helmet or safety shoes. “It is not without reason that customers and visitors describe Venus as the most European factory in India,” laughs Mr. Patel. The focus here is on the employees. The company now has 1,200 employees who work in three shifts. The 5S method is used in production. However, it’s not just physical integrity that counts. The team spirit is also kept high with events such as a cricket tournament and many festival celebrations.
The company has developed a good reputation as an attractive employer and is therefore easier to find capable employees. Venus offers services that go far beyond the usual in the country: Employees are not only offered transport between home and work but are also provided with living space on the Venus Campus. Venus also offers meals in the company canteen. Workers, employees and management live there equally without class arrogance.
All measures presented, from technology to environmental awareness to employee satisfaction, contribute to Venus’ success. The manufacturer now exports to 28 countries. With Stefan Müller-Bernhardt’s many years of experience, the European market is now being developed and supplied with pipes from Venus Pipes & Tubes.

Venus in Europe

Venus is having a very strong presence in the Europe market. Stefan Müller-Bernhardt and Thomas De Vos having decades of industry experience are penetrating the market with excellent quality products and customer service.
ust one year of active presence, Venus already has a respectable market share of amongst Indian producers. After the mother hollow piercing plant was commissioned last year, the first export of seamless stainless steel pipes to Europe market took place. Stefan never tires of emphasizing that success is based on teamwork: “We are a team. One is nothing without the other. We mesh together like a gear.”

Looking back with gratitude

After the comprehensive expansion and further development of the company location and reaching significant capacity utilization, further investments are planned in the near future. Capacity for expansion is secured, among other things, through the acquisition of a 30,000 m² more land area just adjoining the existing factory.
“We started with a humble capacity of 200 ton per month and grew rapidly after that. Today we have a capacity of more than 3000 ton per month”, explains Mr. Kothari.
“The very cooperative relationships that we maintain with specialist publications such as Stainless Steel World Germany and other marketing partners have increased our awareness and enabled the growth that now allows us to show our gratitude as a sponsor of the Stainless Steel World in Maastricht 2025 and 2027,” said Mr. Müller-Bernhardt. Before that, however, customers and interested parties have the opportunity to talk to Venus at Tube 2024 from April 15th to 19th in Düsseldorf.

About this Featured Story

This Featured Story appeared in Stainless Steel World March 2024 magazine. To read many more articles like these on an (almost) monthly basis, subscribe to our magazine (available in print and digital format) – SUBSCRIPTIONS TO OUR DIGITAL VERSION ARE NOW FREE.

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