Thermax expects 3-4 segments to open up in Q4 and Q1 of FY18 supporting medium and large projects, which had gone dry in this financial year.
In his interview to Network 18, Narendra Modi had said that he did not reveal the full economic rot before his first Budget as he thought that it would depress business and investor sentiment further
Thermax has started bidding for selective and specialised products and is close to winning a large order in the solar thermal space, says MS Unnikrishnan, MD of Thermax.
In an interview to CNBC-TV18, MS Unnikrishnan, MD of Thermax said that 18 percent goods and services tax (GST) should certainly bring down tax rate.
Speaking to CNBC-TV18's MS Unnikrishnan, MD & CEO of Thermax said Brexit will have short-term ramifications.
Thermax MD MS Unnikrishnan said the industry may not see a full recovery in sectors like power, cement, steel, oil and gas and fertilisers.
He further said that the margins will improve only when there is a sellers market as such is not the case, margin improvement won‘t happen immediately hence, margin retention or maintenance is the priority at this moment.
Thermax saw orders worth Rs 528 crore from the domestic markets in the second quarter of this fiscal year, while its international order book stood at just Rs 200 crore, says MS Unnikrishnan, MD of the company
On future acquisitions, Unnikrishnan says Thermax is focusing on biomass and alternate energy recourses for inorganic growth, both domestically and internationally
The overall capacity utilisation of the company is hovering around 60-65 percent.
In an interview to CNBC-TV18, MS Unnikrishnan, MD of Thermax, Indranil Pan, Chief Economist at Kotak Mahindra Bank and Pranav Sayta, Tax Partner at EY, discuss on the Economic Survey and their expectations from the Budget.
Even as the central government has taken various steps such as passing an ordinance to simplify land acquisition for infrastructure projects, a meaningful pick-up in order flows, such as in the power sector, is at least a year away, believes engineering firm Thermax.
Thermax reported over two-fold jump in its net profit at Rs 86 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2014. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 30.16 crore in the corresponding quarter of the last financial year.
In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Thermax MD MS Unnikrishnan said he does not expect things to change on ground over the next 2-3 months.
MS Unnikrishnan feels the new government should bring policy-conducive environment to ease land acquisition. There‘s a need to cut down on the number of clearances for projects and interest rates should be lowered to prop up the investment climate.
In a panel discussion with Latha Venkatesh of CNBC-TV18, Rashesh Shah Chairman & CEO, Edelweiss Group, Seshagiri Rao Jt MD & Group CFO, JSW Steel, MS Unnikrishnan MD, Thermax and Ajit Ranade Chief Economist, Aditya Birla Group spoke about their expectations from the new government.
The current good run is based on the calculations by the market that investment cycle is going to catch on. However, there has been no change on the ground level, says MS Unnikrishnan.
The company‘s margins are unlikely to improve in the second half of this financial year unless orders pick up, says MS Unnikrishnan, MD, Thermax.
Growth in key economic sectors like cement, steel and refinery continues to be sluggish, says MS Unnikrishnan, MD, Thermax.
"The project is for design, engineering, manufacture, supply, erection and commissioning of 3 HRSGs (Heat Recovery Steam Generators) from a leading petrochemical Company for its proposed captive power plant as a part of its expansion programme," the company said in a statement.
The order carry forward at this point of time is approximately Rs 5,300 crore against Rs 4,900 crore, which is around 20 percent more than the previous year.
MS Unnikrishnan, MD, Thermax says rupee depreciation makes export orders competitive for capital goods companies and one can help combat increasing input costs by that.
In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Sutanu Behuria, Secretary, Department of Heavy Industries and MS Unnikrishnan, MD, Thermax spoke about capital goods sector.
The country has installed capacity of more than 20,000-25,000 MW and only 5,600 MW worth of orders got finalized, hence going forward capacity utilization for all power sector players will be less than 25-30 percent. Shortage of orders is more of a problem for the power sector than execution.
Thermax has reported a fall of 25 percent in net profit in June quarter on low margin orders.