Electrical, Electronics Firms Better Figures In 01-02

Electrical and electronic products manufacturers posted a double-digit growth in sales and net profit during the year ended 2001-02.

Aggregate sales of 35 companies increased by 10.5 per cent, while net profit surged 22.3 per cent during the year.

These firms have been putting up lackluster performances in the past two years, which saw either a drop in profits or a modest single-digit growth in sales.

The performance in 2001-02 has also been reflected in production numbers, which increased 1.73 per cent after a drop of 3.7 per cent in the previous year.

The growth can be attributed to the Rs 38,000 crore industry's increased focus on exports. This also helped these companies to offset the effect of the slowdown in the domestic industrial sector.

According to figures available with the Indian Electrical and Electronics Manufacturers Association (IEEMA), exports of products such as power transformers, SF6 circuit breakers, power capacitors and AAC/ACSR conductors have surpassed the previous year's exports within the first nine months of 2001-02 (April-December 2001).

Various power sector reform programmes also helped the industry post better performance, opines IEEMA.

Consequently, power transformer production surged 10.6 per cent to 38,200 mva, while production of energy meters jumped by 18 per cent to 92 lakh.

Crompton Greaves saw a 16.2 per cent rise in sales and booked a net profit of Rs 4.04 crore during the year against a net loss of Rs 102.1 crore the previous year.

The company's performance was aided by over a 25 per cent rise in revenues from power system business which shares 40 per cent of its revenue.

For Bharat Heavy Electricals, power sector business shares 65-70 per cent of earnings. The company posted a growth of 14.6 per cent in sales, while profit remained constant at Rs 450 crore followed by higher raw material costs.

Bharat Electronics, backed by better order book, saw a 12.9 per cent rise in sales and a 21.3 per cent jump in net profit.

Alstom reported a 7 per cent increase in sales and a reduction in net loss to Rs 2.07 crore (Rs 2.75 crore). Similarly, Havell's India posted a 30 per cent rise in sales and a 40 per cent growth in net profit.

The growth in cases like energy meters and capacitors had been cushioned by the strategic decision of multinational companies to shift their entire manufacturing base to India.

However, industry observers feel that the growth has not been across-the-board with most of the products still showing a slip in growth.

Products such as LT motors, alternators, power contactors and switches were the ones that were affected badly. The production of AC Motors-LT slipped 3.5 per cent, while that of LT Circuit Breakers decreased 1.4 per cent.