L&T’s Hazira forgings unit nears completion

Larsen & Toubro (L&T), the engineering & construction behemoth, is close to commissioning its heavy forgings & castings unit at Hazira, Gujarat, chairman AM Naik said.

The company in January started production of supercritical boilers and turbines generators also at Hazira through its joint venture with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

Speaking at L&T annual general meeting, AM Naik did not say when exactly the facility would be operational.

L&T is building the `1,725 crore heavy forgings facility as part of a joint venture with the Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL). L&T holds 74% in the JV. The two companies inked the venture in November 2009 and said at that time production would begin in April 2011.

Naik had also the JV would export from that unit in 2013. The facility has a capacity of 1 lakh tonne per annum (tpa) of special steel and 40,000 tpa of forgings.

Talking of nuclear power, Naik, whose term ends in September 2012, said the Fukushima disaster in Japan will push back nuclear power capacity addition.

India plans to quadruple its installed nuclear power capacity by 2020 and take it to 63,000 mw by 2032.

At present, only state-owned NPCIL is permitted to generate nuclear power.

Naik also said that the company’s Rs3,375 crore shipyard-cum-port complex at Kattupalli near Ennore, Tamil Nadu, will be ready shortly. The container port terminal is said to have an initial capacity of 1 million standard containers, which can later be upped 50%. L&T has outlined capital expenditure of Rs4,000 crore for this fiscal. L&T dropped 1% on the Bombay Stock Exchange to close at Rs1,531.35 on Friday.