The Hindu Business Line : BEML targets Rs 2,000-cr sales turnover

Mr V.R.S. Natarajan, Chairman and Managing Director, BEML, flanked by Mr P. Mazumdar (right), Director Finance, and Mr V.S. Venkatanathan, Director, R&D, at a press conference in Bangalore on Wednesday. - G.R.N. Somashekar

Bangalore , Sept. 29

DEFENCE engineering PSU Bharat Earth Movers Ltd, which is armed with a comfortable order book, has targeted a sales turnover of Rs 2,000 crore and pre-tax profit almost doubling to Rs 100 crore for the current fiscal year.

It will be a growth of 13 per cent over the 2003-04 sales revenue of Rs 1,765 crore.

At the end of the first five months of the current fiscal, the company has orders worth Rs 2,015 crore, the CMD, Mr V.R.S. Natarajan, told a news conference after the 40th AGM today. After an 11-year gap, BEML has posted Q1 profit of Rs 9.31 crore during the current fiscal. In comparison, it suffered loss of Rs 16.98 crore during the same quarter in 2003-04.

BEML has lined up a new range of defence products. These include the Rs 968-crore order it expects to bag for making 100 units of self-propelled gun system Bhim-T6 at its Kolar Gold Fields unit near here.

The order for the 155-mm variant of the main battle tank Arjun is awaiting Cabinet clearance. The project will be taken up in tie-up with South African company LIW Denel. While BEML will make the hull and undercarriage, Denel will supply guns and turrets. This would be a significant foray towards making tanks, Mr Natarajan said. BEML will develop test tracks for Bhim-T6 and armoured recovery vehicles at KGF where it has leased land from the defunct PSU, Bharat Gold Mines Ltd (BGML).

Currently the core business of earth moving equipment forms 53 per cent of the business and defence orders about 46 per cent. Rail coaches form the minuscule remainder of 0.9 per cent.

As metro projects start proliferating in the coming years, he expected this proportion to change dramatically, Mr Natarajan said.

Another areas of growth, he said, is the Pontoon Mainstream Bridge system, which has been indigenously developed and tried out for the Army. BEML would soon take up bulk production of six bridges worth Rs 60 crore each to move men, materials and vehicles. With rising coal demand, BEML has pegged its future growth to the Rs 18,900-crore expansion plan of Coal India and its subsidiaries in the next two years of the Tenth Plan.