Public sector power equipment supplier Bhel continues to dominate the Indian market even as it is expanding its operations abroad. The company is set to augment its manufacturing capacity from the existing 10,000 mw level to 15,000 mw by the end of the current fiscal.

The company hopes to benefit from tender issued by NTPC and Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) for bulk procurement fo supercritical units for their envisaged Twelfth plan projects. ?Bhel has a natural advantage over the competitors, being in existance for last 40-45 years that is one point. The next point is that Bhel?s product profile if you look at, the entire chain of equipments, our power plants are made in Bhel in various units and number of technologies have been implemented by this company? said B Prasada Rao, chairman and managing director of Bhel.

Meanwhile, the company had booked orders worth Rs 36,000 crore upto the third quarter against its Rs 55,000 crore target for the current financial year. Of this, orders worth Rs 16,000 crore came in the third quarter. The company?s total order books stood at Rs 1,34,000 crore at the end of the third quarter. The company hopes the pace of order inflows to further accelerate in the last quarter.

The company bagged orders for supply of equipment to 12,479 mw capacity in the current financial year upto the third quarter from the power sector. Meanwhile, the company booked orders for equipment supply to captive power projects worth 1,965 mw. Bhel also received orders worth Rs 967 crore for export of power equipment. The Union power ministry has envisaged 100 gw power generation capacity under the coming Twelfth plan. Orders for 33,000 mw have been placed by developers. 55% of the orders have gone to Bhel.

Bhel?s net profit rose 35% to Rs 1,072 crore in the third quarter from the same period of the previous fiscal. The company announced an interim dividend of Rs 11 per share after its board meeting.

The company?s profit before interest and tax in the quarter works out to Rs 1,713 crore. Of this, Rs 1,308 crore came from the power sector and the rest from the industry. Meanwhile, the company?s total income increased to Rs 7,422 crore from Rs 6,328 crore in the corresponding period of the past year, an increase of 17%. Of the company?s total income in the quarter, Rs 5,708 crore came from the power sector. The rest was from the industry. The company?s operating profit margins rose 319 basis points in the third quarter over the same period of the preceding fiscal. Bhel?s earning per share (EPS) in the latest quarter rose by 35.6% to Rs 21.91 from the same period of the past fiscal.

Rao adds, ?Bhel has got and established over a period, all over the country we can reach any customer within no time. Recent example is Srisailam hydropower station which was under water since October 2. We started attainding to that unit from 6th of October and all the units have been commissioned in the last 6 weeks. This was a record. So, this is a kind of service capability which Bhel has established.?

The company has seen declining market share in recent years because of competition from cheaper Chinese imports. It has been making representation to the government for a level playing against Chinese suppliers. It seems that the government has taken seriously the threat to Bhel from imports.

To keep the Chinese threat at bay, the government has already put up conditions for having a manufacturing facility in India and participating in bidding for bulk supply of supercritical equipment to projects envisaged by NTPC and Damodar Valley Corporation. Bhel hopes to benefit from that.

Meanwhile, the government also plans to bar developers of ultra mega power projects from importing equipment by putting in conditions of having a manufacturing facility in India. This should also help Bhel regain its market share in the medium term.