The Hindu Business Line : Thermax’s China, Vadodara units to begin operations soon

Pune, July 25 A manufacturing plant in China, a facility in Vadodara and review of its subsidiaries are all part of the roadmap that Thermax Ltd, a player in the energy and environment engineering sector, has chalked out for the current fiscal.

Talking to presspersons, Ms Meher Pudumjee, Chairperson, Thermax Ltd, said the company would be investing close to Rs 425 crore in fixed assets which include the setting up of the two facilities, a corporate office and an ERP system.

She said the China facility would be manufacturing chillers for the Chinese as well as the global markets. It would be looking at manufacturing 200 chillers to start with. It would be ramped up to 400 chillers per year.

An investment of $8.5 million is being utilised for the set-up which would be located at Zhejiang. The facility would be a 100 per cent owned subsidiary and would be known as Thermax (Zhejiang) Cooling and Heating Engineering Co Ltd.

She said the commercial operations of the China plant is expected to begin by April . On the other expansion plans, Ms Pudumjee said the facility at Savali near Vadodara was on course and is expected to be fully operational by March. In the first phase, it would be manufacturing 200 shell type boilers ranging between 10 and 25 tonnes. It would also cater to large capacity field erected boilers and heaters as per customer requirements.

Mr M.S. Unnikrishnan, Managing Director, said that the current set of boilers could generate power up to 135 MW. The customers in this segment included local power plants and independent power producers of captive power plants, he pointed out. Ms Pudumjee said the company has decided to either close down or amalgamate some of its non-performing subsidiaries.

Commenting on the first quarter results, Ms Pudumjee said the company earned a net profit of Rs 56 crore as against Rs 27.54 crore, during the same period last year. The total income was Rs 676.30 crore (Rs 329.17 crore).

The board of directors had declared an interim dividend of 170 per cent in March 2007 followed by a final recommended dividend of 130 per cent taking the total to 300 per cent for the year 2006-07.

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