In the corporate history of industrial India, the third-generation transition is often viewed with a degree of cautious scepticism. Business folklore – and statistical reality – frequently warns of a familiar trajectory: the first generation builds the enterprise from scratch; the second consolidates and expands its reach; and the third, insulated by legacy wealth, risks diluting the core vision. At Shyam Steel Group, however, this narrative is not merely being challenged – it is being systematically dismantled.
From its roots in eastern India, Shyam Steel Industries Limited has evolved into a national industrial powerhouse. Known primarily for high-grade thermo-mechanically treated (TMT) rebars, the company is undergoing an ambitious transformation. But the real story lies within the executive suites at the corporate headquarters in Kolkata. Here, a well-educated, highly structured third generation of family leadership – three cousins, Raghav Beriwala, Keshav Beriwala and Sarvesh Beriwala – have taken the reins with a clear objective: to protect the group’s core ‘cash cow’ – its formidable steel business – while using its financial strength to launch high-tech growth engines across infrastructure, defence engineering, digital platforms and paints.
This Kolkata-based, closely held group has achieved revenue of over Rs10,000 crore and employs 15,000 people. The steel business alone contributes almost 80 per cent of the revenue, with a five-year CAGR of over 12 per cent. It has a capacity to produce 1.5 million tonnes per annum (MTPA), which is now being expanded.
Shyam Steel was founded in 1953 by Shriram Beriwala and his younger brother Shyam Sunder Beriwala with a small factory in Howrah. Later, the second generation of the Beriwala family – Purushottam, Ravi, Manish, Govind, Brijesh and Lilit Beriwala – joined the business and grew the company into a multi-product steel manufacturing powerhouse with over six decades of industry presence. The company operates through its integrated steel manufacturing plants located in West Bengal and claims to be an early investor in advanced Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) technology. It combines intensive in-house R&D with modern infrastructure to maintain cost efficiency and quality. Shyam TMT rebars are engineered to be earthquake-proof and corrosion-resistant, serving domestic and international markets. They are extensively utilised across critical national infrastructure, including urban development, irrigation, railways, roads, bridges, ports, airports, defence and energy projects. Driven by innovation, Shyam Steel is cementing its reputation as a leading TMT bar manufacturer in the country.
Structured diversification
Anchored by its foundational steel operations, the group’s third-generation directors are now transcending conventional family business models by executing a structured diversification.
Raghav, 33 (Ravi’s son), who holds an MSc in Entrepreneurship & International Business from Aston Business School, drives B2B sales for the company, accounting for nearly 60 per cent of its final product sales. He has also led Shyam Steel’s technology transformation, spearheading the implementation of SAP, CRM and HRMS systems and championing Industry 4.0 adoption across operations. Keshav, 28 (Brijesh’s son), an alumnus of the University of California, Berkeley, is spearheading the company’s expansion and modernisation projects, with a focus on technologically advanced operations for sustainability. Sarvesh, 22 (Lalit’s son), is the youngest member of the leadership team. A commerce graduate, he joined the business in 2023 and is closely associated with the group’s strategic growth and business development initiatives. The company is currently going through a massive expansion in steel. These young leaders bring academic discipline and long-term strategic clarity. Rather than remaining passive custodians of a legacy steelmaker, they operate with a hands-on focus, establishing professional management protocols across their corporate headquarters and plant sites. Looking ahead, the new leadership team on the board remains highly ambitious. “We are aiming to take the group to new heights for both our core steel operations and the new business ventures,” says Raghav.
To understand Shyam Steel’s future, one must first grasp the scale of its core foundation. The company is investing Rs10,000 crore to ramp up its manufacturing capacity. The expansion strategy is straightforward yet aggressive: almost double the company’s manufacturing capacity to 3.5 MTPA from 1.5 MTPA over the next 5 years, in phases across all its plants. A Rs2,000-crore investment is currently underway at the Mejia plant, Bankura, in West Bengal, to complete both backward and forward integration, ensuring optimal conversion costs and operational efficiency. The group also proposes to invest another Rs5,000 crore across strategic sectors of national importance, such as defence manufacturing, infrastructure, digital platforms and paints.
The new BJP chief minister of West Bengal, Suvendu Adhikari, laid the foundation stone of Shyam Steel Group’s 2-MTPA steel division expansion programme in July. This was the first plant the chief minister inaugurated after the BJP government came to power, to showcase the present government’s sincerity towards industrial growth in Bengal. The chief minister stated: “The political change has brought investors back to the state. This will stop youth migration from the state.” He also promised an investor-friendly climate with an improved law-and-order situation. Lalit Beriwala, director of the group, says: “We reinforce our commitment to take the development trajectory of the state government forward and herald a new dawn of progress in West Bengal that had suffered serious setbacks in terms of industrial development for many decades.”
Walking through the sprawling industrial campus at Mejia in West Bengal, the physical manifestations of an aggressive transformation are hard to miss alongside a massive new construction site. The proposed plant comprises, among others, facilities for a DRI unit, pellet and beneficiation, a Steel Melting Shop, a high-speed rolling mill for TMT bars and structural steel, solar power capacity and a private railway siding. “The expansion will deepen both backward and forward integration, enabling the company to convert iron ore fines into pellets, sponge iron, steel billets and ultimately finished steel within an integrated manufacturing ecosystem,” explains Keshav.
Focus on steel business
Incidentally, Mejia was a sick ferro-alloys unit of Sova Ispat acquired by Shyam Steel in 2011. The main attraction, of course, was its captive surface coal mine called Ardhargra in Bankura. However, later in 2014, the Supreme Court cancelled over 200 coal block allocations in the country made through the Screening Committee and through the Government Dispensation route since 1993, terming them illegal. The company then started focusing on the steel business in 2016. The integrated steel unit on 250 acres is now fully utilised. “We are in an advanced stage of procuring 500 acres of land for our expansion,” says Mejia unit vice-president Manoj Daga.
The company’s overall investment plans in steel are expected to boost revenues, enhance operational efficiency and long-term cost competitiveness, while providing greater control over quality, raw materials and the entire steelmaking value chain. Shyam Steel currently has four fully operational steel manufacturing facilities across Bengal – Mejia, Angadpur, Bamunara and Raghunathpur.
“The company’s enhanced capacity will add to the national capacity of steel manufacturing and contribute to reaching the target of 300 MTPA steel production by 2029-30, as envisaged in the National Steel Policy (NSP),” Keshav points out. “India has become the second-largest steel producer in the world, leaving behind major economies. The sector is growing at over 10 per cent annually – driven by relentless national infrastructure demand. However, the per capita consumption of steel in India, even today, is half the global average. The global average would be somewhere around 220 kg per person per annum. We are somewhere around 100 kg. There is a lot of room for growth right now. We have barely touched the surface,” he adds.
While many steelmakers balance their product mixes across flat steel (hot-rolled and cold-rolled coils used in automotive and white goods) and long steel (rebars and structural sections), Shyam Steel has remained focused on long steel, particularly TMT rebars. TMT represents its standout product, accounting for roughly 90 per cent of steel revenues, with the remaining 10 per cent generated from intermediate products such as sponge iron and billets. “In terms of market positioning, Shyam Steel Flexi Strong TMT rebars rank among the top national brands, standing alongside legacy public and private giants like SAIL, Tata Steel and JSW Steel. In Eastern India, it holds a firm position within the top three producers,” claims Raghav
The distribution model reflects a deliberate dual strategy. Institutional sales (B2B project marketing) serve major public infrastructure efforts – including high-speed rail lines, national highway corridors, bridges, public health engineering projects, CPWD works, nuclear power stations and commercial airports. Meanwhile, retail sales (B2C) target individual house builders (IHBs) across traditional strongholds in Eastern and north-eastern India, as well as expansion markets in northern and southern India. Sixty per cent of the company’s sales are through institutional channels and 40 per cent through the retail channel. It has over 5,000 active dealers nationwide and is expanding its dealer footprint by 30 per cent annually.
The company has thoughtfully positioned itself in the premium tier of the market. Historical roots play a role here: back in the late 1990s, the company was among the pioneers bringing modern TMT technology into Eastern India through an early technical partnership with CONCAST AG Zurich. That focus on stringent metallurgical process control persists today. According to the management, Shyam Steel was the fourth company in India – behind only SAIL, Tata and RINL – to secure certification from the Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO) for Indian Railways, a regulatory benchmark that requires exhaustive quality compliance.
Quality assurance is an integrated process, from conception to completion, following a stringent quality mandate in order to improve and provide value. “The quality control lab is furnished with advanced equipment that measures continuous quality improvement of the products at various stages of production,” says Raghav proudly.
Quality products
The company’s TMT rebars are ideal for oil & gas exploration sites, dams and bridges, highways and flyovers, ports and jetties, thermal and hydel power stations, industrial structures and hazardous-area construction. The quality steel products are used by large government entities, including public sector undertakings such as the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), railways, Military Engineering Services, Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCI) and various state governments.
Ramesh Kumar Bharti, owner of Shyam Steel’s largest Aurangabad distributor (Shyam Ramesh Bharti), has been selling the company’s TMT rebars for a decade. He attributes the brand’s success to its consistent quality, strong customer demand, superior dealer margins and highly supportive management team.
Shyam Steel entered the decorative paints market last year with its brand, Macaw. The name was inspired by homeowners’ desire to showcase vibrant, eye-catching exteriors. By launching this brand, Shyam Steel aims to channel its decades-long legacy of strength and reliability into the consumer-centric world of home décor and finishes. To boost its market presence, the company has roped in Bollywood actor Kartik Aaryan as its brand ambassador.
The paint division currently operates a manufacturing plant in Habra, West Bengal. “We are currently producing 300,000 litres monthly and generating Rs40 crore in revenue,” says Sarvesh. “Over the next year, we plan to expand our capacity to 20,000 kilolitres annually.” Additionally, the company has signed Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with the governments of West Bengal and Bihar to set up new paint production facilities, targeting an escalated revenue of Rs150 crore.
The brand is already seeing strong regional traction. Ajit Daruka, proprietor of Arjun Das Baijnath Private Limited – one of the largest distributors for Macaw paints in Jharkhand’s Dumka district – shared his enthusiasm for the brand’s reception. “The market response to the paint has been excellent,” Daruka noted. “In just one year, demand in the district has surged from 6 per cent to 20 per cent.”
But a senior executive from one of the country’s largest paint companies, speaking on condition of anonymity, says: “Low entry barriers in the segment are attracting new players to regional markets. While the paint industry witnessed consolidation in the last few years, scaling up remains a major challenge for new entrants.”
One of the most notable turnarounds in Shyam Steel’s evolution is its direct expansion into infrastructure project execution. Rather than acting purely as a raw material vendor to third-party engineering firms, the group launched a dedicated internal infrastructure engineering division called Shyam Infra Nirman.
The division’s active order book stands at Rs800 crore, with a further Rs6,000 crore in tenders pending. Current projects include the Rs300-crore modernisation of the Satna Railway Station in Madhya Pradesh under the Central Government’s Amrit Bharat initiative – which aims to upgrade regional rail hubs into airport-grade transit facilities – as well as Rs300 crore in National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) road corridors in Chhattisgarh, alongside various complex railway overpasses and structural bridges. “The infrastructure unit’s revenue trajectory reflects this rapid scaling,” says Raghav.
Looking ahead, the group is positioning itself for complex engineering challenges, particularly specialised underground tunnelling. Recognising upcoming subterranean transit and utility projects in Kolkata and Howrah, as well as strategic rail links across the North-East and Sikkim, Shyam Steel spent six months building an in-house tunnelling division. It recruited senior technical talent from Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL), global design consultancies such as AECOM, and major engineering contractors such as L&T.
While steel provides volume and infrastructure offers scale, advanced engineering and defence manufacturing represent Shyam Steel’s push into technology-driven growth. India’s defence modernisation strategy has increasingly emphasised Self-Reliant India, seeking to replace costly defence imports with domestically manufactured equipment. Shyam Steel identified a strategic opportunity: rather than pursuing crowded assembly markets such as standard drone frames, it focused on localised manufacturing of high-precision components and sub-systems currently imported from overseas vendors.
To drive this effort, the group acquired a 200-acre industrial site in Jhargram, transforming it into a high-tech manufacturing hub. The first plant goes live within three months, focusing on three key projects: heavy industrial fabrication for shipbuilding and railways, robotics and advanced materials.
New verticals
By 2031, the company expects the new business verticals to make a meaningful contribution. “We spend the first 2-3 years mastering a new business, then pivot to aggressive scaling once we have absolute confidence in its growth potential,” explains Raghav.
We are aiming to take the group to new heights for both our core steel operations and the new business ventures
To streamline infrastructure procurement, the group launched ZHuzoor Infratech Private Limited, a digital marketplace and supply-chain aggregator for construction materials. Operating independently from Shyam Steel’s direct sales, ZHuzoor serves as a single source for major contractors, supplying steel plates, cement, bitumen, crash barriers and structural items. By its third year of operation, it crossed Rs1,500 crore in annual revenue, with targets set to reach Rs2,500 crore.
In steel manufacturing, beyond West Bengal, the group is actively acquiring land and engaging in detailed discussions with state governments in Odisha, Bihar and Maharashtra to set up new steel manufacturing footprints. “We are keen to set the company’s footprints in these states once we get the right land,” says Keshav.
Steel prices have held firm, up 11 per cent since July 2026, helped by tighter domestic supply and a 3 per cent cut in Chinese output. The end of the monsoon should revive construction activity. “Over the longer term, demand looks well supported by sustained government infrastructure spending (FY27BE capex of Rs12.2 lakh crore, up 9 per cent YoY) and a gradual recovery in private capex,” explains Vaibhav Pachisia, executive director, SKP Securities. “We expect prices to hold near current levels in the near term, while structural demand growth supports the medium-term outlook for domestic producers.” The key risks are a rebound in Chinese exports and slower government spending, he cautioned.
Despite its rapid multi-sector expansion, Shyam Steel maintains a disciplined approach to balance-sheet management. The group targets a leverage ratio of approximately 1:1 debt-to-equity, utilising internal cash flows to fund long-term capital investments.
“By maintaining a dedicated corporate liquidity buffer, the group insulates its core operations from cyclical commodity downturns and seasonal raw material disruptions – such as annual summer coal shortages, when domestic coal is frequently prioritised for utility power grids,” Keshav points out. However, the company has no plans to pursue an IPO option at present.
Through disciplined execution, strong corporate governance and targeted technological investments, the company’s third-generation leadership is charting a clear path forward. Shyam Steel is proving that traditional industrial enterprises can adapt, innovate and expand into complex modern engineering – setting a benchmark for family-owned businesses across India.