Thermax Ltd. expects more orders from consumer-facing industries during the rest of the financial year after they declined in the current quarter.
“Naturally, we’re heading for a contraction as we opened the year with a smaller order book compared to last year,” MS Unnikrishnan, managing director of the electricity-generation equipment maker, told BloombergQuint in an interview. “We expect orders from industries such as food processing, dairy and there’s also an uptick in the packaging industry as e-commerce is growing at a faster pace.”
The Pune-headquartered company aims to overcome the contraction by taking up short-cycle orders—or those in which the project lifecycle from bidding to execution would last no more than a year.
Average order ticket size would be around Rs 500 crore for equipment such as standard-package boilers and pollution control devices, he said.
Key Highlights:
On Budget:
- We need to be prudent on fiscal deficit like developed economies.
- Fiscal deficit of 3.4-3.5 percent would result in money in the hands of the government to fund mega projects.
- At least 100 new airports must be conceived by civil aviation ministry; aim to complete at least half of them in the next five years.
- Port infrastructure work, which took a beating in the last 2-3 years, must be rejuvenated.
Cement Sector:
- Expect orders to kick off from second half of current year.
- Affordable housing space is expected to improve.
Steel Companies:
- Need policy support for private players who are adding capacity.
- Industry may not see orders in the current year due to land acquisition, mining lease allocation delays.
Watch the full interview here: