Exide Industries reported improved margins for the first quarter, attributing the gains to a combination of price increases, cost control measures, and supply chain efficiencies, according to the company's Q1 earnings call.

The margin improvement came despite headwinds from elevated input costs and adverse currency movements. Lead, the primary raw material for lead-acid battery production, has experienced price volatility in global commodity markets, making input cost management a persistent challenge for battery manufacturers. Higher revenue also contributed to the expanded profitability.

Exide Industries is one of India's largest manufacturers of lead-acid storage batteries and storage solutions, serving the automotive, submarine, and industrial sectors. The company competes primarily with Amara Raja Batteries in the Indian automotive and industrial battery market. Headquartered in Kolkata, the company supplies batteries to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) across the automotive industry as well as to the replacement market, which is typically less cyclical than OEM demand as it is driven by India's growing installed vehicle base. Its product portfolio includes automotive, motorcycle, and commercial vehicle batteries, along with inverters, uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems, and industrial batteries for telecommunications and infrastructure applications.

The company's subsidiary, Exide Energy Solutions Ltd (EESL), focuses on lithium-ion cell manufacturing and is part of Exide's strategic expansion into advanced battery technologies aimed at electric vehicles and grid-scale energy storage. India has been pushing for domestic cell manufacturing capacity to reduce reliance on imports, particularly from China, which currently dominates the global lithium-ion supply chain.

Source: CNBC-TV18