Thermax starts work on 3,000 mw boiler plant

Thermax Ltd, Pune-based energy & environment solutions provider, has begun construction of Phase I of its 3,000 mw supercritical boiler manufacturing plant near Pune, said managing director M S Unnikrishnan.

The facility falls under the joint venture Thermax signed with American firm Babcock & Wilcox (B&W) over a year back.
Thermax holds 51% in the venture and B&W the rest.

Unnikrishnan said the companies last quarter acquired 104 acres at MIDC (Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation) Shirwal near Pune and construction began about 20 days back.
“We have already placed orders for all the machinery and a good part of them is imported,” he said. Thermax is looking to commission the plant by September 2012 and Phase II of 2,000 mw the following year.

The total capital outlay for Phase I is ¤800 crore, with a debt-equity ratio of 1:1. Supercritical boilers are more efficient and consume less fuel than subcritical ones and in India are built in capacities of 660 mw and 800 mw.

Thermax has been associated with B&W for over 20 years in the area of industrial boilers. In 2008 Thermax signed a technology transfer agreement with B&W to make 100-800 mw subcritical boilers. But it’s only been making boilers up to 300 mw.
The JV will also make subcritical boilers of over 300 mw.
Unnikrishnan said the JV has put in pre-qualification bids for Bhel’s 9X800 mw units. “We are also looking at two private projects,” he said.

Thermax-B&W’s competitors include Bhel-Alstom, L&T-MHI (Mitsubishi Heavy Industry) Boilers, Ansaldo Caldaie-GB Engineering and BGR Energy-Hitachi.

Thermax ended the quarter ended March 31 with consolidated net sales of ¤1,964.31 crore, up 53% from the year-ago period. Net profit was ¤117.30 crore compared to a loss of ¤17.12 crore.
Thermax’s order backlog stood at ¤6,446 crore, up 8.30% from March 2010.