The lack of fresh orders and a general slowdown in the power sector continues to trouble power equipment maker Bharat Heavy Electricals. The company bagged orders worth just R1,120 crore or 21.2% of the Q1 target. The company is facing a tough time for last two financial years, when both its sales and profits took a big hit.

In 2013-14, BHEL for the first time even failed to meet the reduced turnover target of R43,000 crore, ending the year with a figure of R40,366 crore. The Q1 order booking is a fall of 23.6% over the same period last year, when the company bagged orders worth R1,466 crore. As per the heavy industries ministry data, of the R1,120 crore order receipt in Q1, BHEL got more than half of the orders only in June when it bagged contracts worth R631 crore. But the June bookings reflects just 31.9% of the monthly target of R1,979 crore.

Bhel is targeting to bag order worth R45,233 crore (including non-power business) in FY15. The April-June period target was R5,286 crore. But going by the initial numbers (of R1,120 crore), achieving the annual target seems remote which may hit company’s topline. The main problem comes from the power business, considering that it represents three-fourths of its revenue generation from that segment. The company is set to declare its first quarter results this week.

Sources say that with the sluggish trend expected to continue in FY15, BHEL may end the year with an even lower turnover level of R34,000 crore. In 2012-13, BHEL’s turnover crossed R50,000-crore mark.

?The situation as it exists today is very bad. Fresh orders have not picked up while execution of earlier orders have also slowed down. The company is now aggressively looking at the renewable sector to get business,? a company official told FE.

The positive aspect of the numbers in the current fiscal is that while orders have slowed down, the company has performed better on production front, achieving 74.9% of the Q1 target of R6,928 crore. Bhel has an order backlog of R1,01,538 crore at the end of March 31, 2014, which reduced further in Q1.

But company’s turnover has reached just about R5,189 crore by the end of June quarter, which is just 11% of the FY15 target of R45,600 crore. The quarterly turnover number has also reached just 74.9% of the period target.