BHEL orders touch new high in 2008-09

Bharat Heavy Electricals received new orders worth INR 59,700 crore during the year ended March 31st 2009, it’s highest in a year and 20% more than the previous fiscal. This has come about even as there is a slowdown in the economy.

BHEL’s capital goods sector is considered a bellwether for manufacturing sector and high supply orders indicate better prospects for the economy going forward. The latest order book position of other capital goods firms are yet to be made public but BHEL can be considered a lead indicator for the sector.

The public sector capital goods major’s new orders were more than twice its revenues in 2008-09. As per the provisional financial data announced last week, BHEL’s order backlog has now reached INR 1,17,000 crore (USD 23 billion) 37% more than what it was during the same period in the previous year. The total order book is equivalent to nearly four and a half times the sales for the year. Growth in order book was even higher than the 29% growth in total revenues, which stood at INR 27,500 crore for 2008-09.

About 75% of the new orders for BHEL came from power sector, equivalent to 17,000 mw of generation capacity. Interestingly, the company’s export orders increased 41% to INR 3,265 crore, despite a near-recessionary global economic scenario.

Some of the significant orders for the year were for supercritical range of equipment having 660 mw and 800 mw capacity. BHEL has also received orders for generators from Nuclear Power Corporation of India for 700 MW nuclear reactors and a high value order of INR 5,040 crore from Jindal Power for setting 2,400 mw power plant.

The rising order book also comes as a challenge for the company which would need to ramp up its capacity to meet the supply contracts.

(Sourced from Economic Times)


ref:
http://steelguru.com/news/index/2009/04/16/OTAzMTY%3D/BHEL_orders_touch_new_high_in_2008-09.html