Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) is confident of facing competition from China and other countries in the core areas of equipment required for power plants as well as in other areas, thanks to its experience in the field and the quality of its products, said B. Prasada Rao, Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of the company.
Addressing a press conference at Ranipet on Tuesday, Mr. Prasada Rao said that the company was confident of retaining its competitive edge in electrostatic precipitators, one of its main products. The quality of the products has been certified and re-certified by international quality certifying agencies, and BHEL had introduced total quality management initiatives which helped it bag the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)-EXIM awards.
“Competition is bound to be there, and we are taking all actions to keep us competitively placed,” he said, adding that the company had requested the Central Government to create a level-playing field in areas where Chinese products enjoyed a favourable treatment on being exported to India as against BHEL products. It has also requested the government to remove the disadantageous factors faced by domestic companies. The group constituted by the Planning Commission to study the BHEL request has recommended levy of customs duty on imports from China.
Mr. Prasada Rao said that in future, transportation would be the major field to which BHEL would be catering to next to the power sector.
The company would be manufacturing propulsion systems for locomotives of Indian Railways. It would be setting up factories jointly with the Railways for producing electromotive units. It would be tying up with Toshiba Anand to manufacture high voltage systems for the railway locomotives.
Another major area in which the BHEL would be operating would be water. It has signed a business agreement with GE for manufacturing reverse osmosis-based desalination water plants to meet the requirements of power plants.
About the defence sector, the CMD said that the Ministry of Defence had nominated BHEL to select the naval technology for the manufacture of 126-mm naval gun on being impressed with its performance in the production of 76-mm naval gun.
On meeting the requirements of the oil industry, he said that BHEL was in the last stage of manufacturing oil rigs for the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC). It expected a turnover of Rs.400 crore annually from the oil industry, he said.
On the overall scenario, the CMD said that the company had been registering an annual growth of 20-30 per cent, while in the last five years, its turnover has tripled, and profits quadrupled. “We expect to surpass the turnover target of Rs.46,000 crore for 2011-12.”
The boiler auxiliaries plant (BAP) at Ranipet has achieved a growth rate which was higher than that of the corporate company. The agreement with GE on water would increase the business opportunities of BAP.
On constraints in getting raw materials, Mr. Prasada Rao said that BHEL was jointly working with the Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL) to see if it could put up steel plants to produce steel tubes required by the company.
The CMD said that BHEL would be putting up new units in Tirumayam near Tiruchi to produce piping systems for power plants, and in Lathur in Maharashtra and Jagadishpur in Uttar Pradesh to meet the fabrication requirements, he said..
