Positive on future growth in cap goods, infra space: Voltas

Industrial growth in February saw a slight dip. Index of Industrial Production (IIP) for the month came in at 3.6% as against 3.7% in January.

In an interview with CNBC-TV18, MM Miyajiwala, executive vice president and CFO of Voltas, spoke about his reading of the IIP numbers and his outlook.

Below is a verbatim transcript of the interview. Also watch the accompanying video.

Q: How have order books looked? A couple of capital goods industry heavyweights, who had come on the channel in the past week, have indicated that order flow this quarter, that is up until March 31, was much lower than what they expected but they see the situation getting corrected. How was the experience at your end?

A: The visibility has been much better in the past. We have been focusing on industrial and infrastructure. Particularly, infrastructure has much higher visibility than even industrial but several government actions on environment clearances and other things are harbinger of good times to come. I am personally quite positive about future growth of the capital goods industry.

Q: Which specific area of capital goods have you seen ordered and where have they been a disappointment?

A: In the terms of IT infrastructure, there are requirements for office space etc. There has been higher investment in the recent past. Also, airport projects, metro projects, hospitals etc, have been showing good growth and hopefully that will continue.

One has seen that the Kalinganagar project of Tata Steel and Posco etc, have got clearances. Those are also good signs. Some highway projects have also been awarded. Generally, infrastructure seems to be much better than what it was in the past.

Q: Which areas were you clearly disappointed?

A: Industrial and mining. For industrial, in the sense, the orders have not been very high so far but the enquiries are reasonably good and that