Heavy Plates and Vessels Plant of Bharat Heavy Electrical Ltd (BHEL) may achieve a turnaround if the momentum in getting new orders continued.
Battling for survival due to subdued market conditions, HPVP (formerly known as Bharat Heavy Plate and Vessels), which became a subsidiary of BHEL, after a prolonged struggle in May 2008 was merged with the maharatna company in August 2013.
Sources told The Hindu that now it had an order book of about Rs.300 crore. The unit recently received orders for fire heaters from ONGC-Hazira and IOCL-Haldia amid tough competition. The order value is estimated to be between Rs.37 crore and Rs.40 crore.
The unit signed an agreement recently with Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre of ISRO for supply of titanium alloy elliptical domes for satellite launching vehicle PSLV.
It obtained orders for auxiliary boilers for Bangladesh and super critical power plants in North Chennai. The unit received a shot in the arm with the receipt of order for supply of 40 compact heat exchangers for Defence sector from Aeronautical Development Agency- Bengaluru.
HPVP had earlier manufactured and supplied compact heat exchangers for Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), which was inducted into Indian Air Force sometime ago.
The unit is at present in final stage of capacity augmentation and modernisation, which has been taken up at a cost of Rs.265 crore. The focus now is to regain its reputation as the supplier of process and cryogenic equipment. When contacted, HPVP recognised union honorary president and BHEL Joint Negotiating Committee (federation level) member Ch. Narsinga Rao told The Hindu that HPVP could achieve a turnaround if orders were placed based on its speciality instead of treating it as a feeder unit of BHEL-Trichy.
The Vizag unit, he said had a production worth Rs.70 crore last year incurring a loss of Rs.89 crore. This year, it has set a target of Rs.285 crore. The loss will be Rs.26 crore if the target is achieved.
Due to adverse market condition, BHEL suffered a loss of Rs.913 crore with a turnover of Rs.28,000 crore during 2015-16. “BHEL has order book of Rs.60,000 crore and if it could complete orders worth Rs.36,000 crore during current fiscal, it can achieve a breakeven,” Mr. Rao said.
