BHEL Trichy turnover up 30%

Power plant equipment manufacturer Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), Trichy, garnered a record turnover of Rs 4,575 crore during the year ended on March 31, 2007, registering 30 per cent growth over the last year.

Addressing the company's annual press conference, R N Misra, group general manager, BHEL, said the Trichy unit, earned profit before tax for the 38th year in a row, at Rs 804 crore, registering a growth of 103 per cent over the last year.

The company's order book position stood at Rs 7,700 crore during the year. This is 125 per cent increase over the previous year. Total orders outstanding currently amount to Rs 11,650 crore, the highest-ever in BHEL's history.

The company bagged a record number of renovation and modernisation orders worth Rs 439 crore this fiscal. The spare parts business alone notched up orders worth over Rs 410 crore.

The turnover projections for the current year seem to surpass Rs 5,400 crore. The PSU is also working on modernisation and upgradation of its Trichy plant. The Rs 190-crore modernisation programme is expected to be completed before October 2007 and post modernisation, the capacity of the plant would be raised from the present 4,000 Mw to 5,750 Mw.

Besides, the board has consented in principle to invest more money in further upgrading the facilities at the Trichy Complex in order to enhance the production capacity to 10,000 Mw by 2009-2010.

BHEL Trichy has developed the design and engineering capabilities for sub-critical 600 Mw capacity boilers and auxiliaries. The unit will participate in the forthcoming tender bids for higher capacity power plant equipment orders.

BHEL has also submitted tender bids for two ultra mega of 800 Mw power plants to be put up by Apgenco (Power Generation Corporation of Andhra Pradesh) at Krishnapatnam, Misra said.

Similarly, the company would be the main contender for the expansion project of the 1,320 Mw power plant at Barh in Bihar, mooted by NTPC.

During 2006-07, BHEL commissioned power plant equipment of 7,863 Mw, comprising 4,791 Mw utility and captive/industrial sets and equipment of 1,332 Mw in the overseas markets. BHEL added 1,740 Mw to the national grid by erecting and commissioning non-BHEL sets, including part supplies.

With this, the installed capacity of BHEL utility sets went up to 80,783 Mw and BHEL maintained its share of 65 per cent in the country's total installed capacity of 1,25,414 Mw, Misra added.

The company recruited around 250 personnel 300 personnel, Misra said.