BHEL unit records Rs. 1586 cr. turnover

By Our Special Correspondent

TIRUCHI, APRIL 5. The BHEL Tiruchi boiler unit, which recorded an all-time turnover of Rs. 1586 crores during the last year, representing about 24 per cent of the turnover of the Navarathna public sector company, also showed the highest ever profit before tax of Rs. 213 crores, about 26.5 per cent of the BHEL's profit during the year, according to Mr. V. K. Gopinath, General Manager in charge of the BHEL Tiruchi Complex. Talking to presspersons here today, Mr. Gopinath said the highest single order inflow of Rs. 1833 crores for a single year was achieved during the current year, despite critical market conditions, and stiff competitive pressure in domestic and international bidding. The export turnover for the year was Rs. 450 crores which included deemed export, he said.

The creditable performance of the BHEL Tiruchi was due to the diversification of the products, aggressive and innovative marketing strageties, sharp reduction in the cycle time, ensured by well planned material purchasing programme, avoiding delay in manufacturing and supply streams, claimed Mr. Gopinath.

Rationalisation of seamless tubes for boiler pressure parts from 223 varieties to 83, and seamless pipe varieties from 558 to 128 varieties, had drastically reduced procurement and manufacturing time, reduced inventory, and better customer satisfaction.

Similar exercises were on in other sectors too. The supply time for a 210 MW boiler had been reduced drastically from 48 months to 28 months and for a 500 MW boiler from 62 to 40 months, he said and hoped to supply the 500 MW boiler in just 38 months.

The order position of the BHEL had improved, and Rs. 1833 crore worth orders booked during the year was 47 per cent more than the orders booked in the previous year. At present the Tiruchi BHEL on hand was having orders worth about Rs. 2262 crores. The orders placed included Rs. 210 crores from customers for supply of spares, Rs. 188 crores received by the Piping centre at Chennai, Rs. 103 crores by the Valves Product Group, especially Rs. 42 crores for the Ranipet Boiler Auxiliaries plant.

During the year, the BHEL had commissioned, eight thermal sets, four gas and CCPP sets and two new nuclear sets, equivalent to a total of 2616 MW power generation.

The Tiruchi BHEL, which had taken a series of steps for improving its competitive ability, has decided to spend Rs. 192 crores for modernisation, and the project would be completed in about two years. Of this, about Rs. 144 crores would be for modernisation of Tiruchi BHEL unit, Rs. 10 crores for Ranipet unit, Rs. 24 crores for Valve unit in Tiruchi. Already steps had been taken for modernisation of the Valves unit and the work would be completed six months ahead of schedule, he said.

The BHEL has signed agreements for technical collaboration for eco-friendly and state-of-the-art technologies for design and manufacture of boilers and fabric filters. The unit hoped to obtain the ISO 14000 environment accreditation by middle of next year.

The company also proposed to open a customer centre in the West Asia shortly for sale of oil equipment, research and development know- how.

Thanks to the improved order position of the BHEL, the small scale units will be given about 68000 tonnes of steel for conversion by the company this year as against 53000 tonnes last year. About 10000 workers employed in about 500 ancillary units would benefit by the increased conversion order, he added.

The value addition by employee rose from Rs. 4.27 lakhs last year to Rs. 5.43 lakhs this year. About Rs. 110 crores were given to about 2000 employees of the company who had opted for the voluntary retirement scheme, during the year. The reduction in staff strength had not in any way affected the performance of the company, he added.

The BHEL had taken up many steps for introduction of information technology for improving its performance in all its shop floors, and units, and hoped to get a substantial part of the business from the IT industry which the company would be entering shortly.

Mr. Gopinath also hoped that with the completion of the cost effective techniques and latest technologies, the company was hopeful of achieving a turnover target of Rs. 1769 crore and profit before tax of Rs. 252 crores budgeted for the year 2000- 2001.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Business
Previous : 'Reaction to Nasdaq movements not rational'