Bhel eyes 33% rise in Hyderabad unit turnover

Bharat Heavy Electricals’ (Bhel) unit in Ramachandrapuram near Hyderabad is targeting a 33% rise in turnover to Rs 6,651 crore in the current financial year.

In the year ended March 31, 2010, the unit clocked a turnover of Rs 5,004 crore and a profit of Rs 930 crore.

“The market condition is improving significantly and the ability of the unit to absorb technology and pass it to the customer is helping to maintain a good order book,” R Krishnan, the unit’s general manager, said.

The unit, which posted its highest-ever turnover, is bulking up its order book.

It plans about Rs 205 crore capital investment to enhance capacity.

The unit currently has an order book of Rs 15,264 crore, or about 68% more than what it had the same time previous fiscal.
To meet the contractual obligations of the order book pose a major challenge.

But the unit has taken various initiatives to accelerate manufacturing and project delivery, he said.

“Outsourcing of finished assemblies, pre-order advance manufacturing action and process improvements are being done to compress the delivery schedules,” Krishnan said.

From being a unit catering to thermal power projects, it has now emerged as a leading player in various sectors including power, transmission and oil & gas.

“The unit has always been quick in adopting technologies such as 120 mw singlecylinder re-heat design turbine, advanced class frame 9FA gas turbine (240 mw), overhang type brushless exciters for 150 mw generators, de-aerating condensers, boiler feed pumps with three minutes dry run capability, air cooled condensers, higher configuration planetary gear box etc,” he said.

The unit is gearing up to meet supercritical applications. The adoption of such technology, according to Krishnan, is crucial to India’s low-carbon growth strategy.

“Considering that future capacity addition in the country will be dominated by coal-based power plants, Bhel’s strategy to absorb this technology will pay rich dividends. Similarly, we have gone for technology tie-ups for higher-capacity compressors to meet a surge in demand from fertiliser plants and refineries,” Krishnan added.