State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has reported about 6% drop in crude oil production for the year ended March 31 on account of lower output from its crown-jewel Mumbai High fields. Crude oil production in 2012-13 at 20.485 million tonnes was 5.8% lower than 21.76 million tonnes achieved in the previous year. It was also short of 21.64 million tonne target set for the year. Mumbai High fields produced 9.55 million tonnes of oil, lower than 9.976 million tonnes in 2011-12. Output from Neelam- Heera fields in the Mumbai offshore at 2.92 million tonnes as well as 2.28 million tonnes of production at Mehsana oilfields in Gujarat were lower than the previous year's output. The shortfall is mainly due to non-commencement of production from G-1 field in eastern offshore and overhauling of process gas compressors at Neelam field. Natural gas production was however higher at 23.54 billion cubic meters as compared to 23.31 bcm in 2011-12. Its biggest field Bassein in the western offshore produced 12.43 bcm of gas as opposed to 12.372 bcm in the previous fiscal.
Crompton Greaves has signed a joint venture agreement with PLNE, an Indonesian company to manufacture and market high voltage and extra high voltage switchgear in Indonesia. Crompton Greaves (CG) will own 51% in the company and the rest will be held by its Indonesian JV partner. The JV terms include a technology transfer by CG over a period of five years for the production of the entire range of switchgear for the network. The products will be manufactured in CG‘s new manufacturing base in Indonesia. The production is expected to commence in 24 months.
Cement major ACC has reported almost 5 percent savings in operations cost at its Tikaria plant in Amethi following implementation of Radio Frequency and GPS based logistics management. The company had deployed Radio Frequency Identification Device (RFID) and Global Positioning System (GPS) in logistics operations under a pilot project. Since, transportation accounts for 30-35 percent of cement retail price, the project was aimed at improving operational efficiency, cutting delays and improving vehicle turnaround. ACC Cement had pioneered this advanced logistics technology in the domestic cement industry. While, RFID tracks the historical data of the truck and time taken from Gate In and Gate Out, GPS tracks their movement outside the plant. The technology was implemented at the Tikaria plant in March 2012 and was later introduced at two more units located in West Bengal and Karnataka. The company intends to implement the technology in all its 16 plants in 2 years.
The government is taking steps to protect the interest of power equipment maker Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) in the wake of competition from Chinese players. A slew of factors including aggressive competition, weak investment sentiment, inflationary pressure and political turmoil in overseas countries like Syria have impacted the performance of state-run BHEL. A number of Chinese companies such as Dongfang, Harbin Power and Shanghai Electric are competing with BHEL. Also there has been a sharp contraction in new orders maturing in the domestic power sector and orders are getting deferred or are put on hold. Further, weak investment sentiments, financing and customer constraints in releasing payments for deliveries were impacting the performance of the company.
A parliamentary panel pulled up the state-run Steel Authority of India (SAIL) for delay in implementation of its ongoing expansion and modernization plan, resulting in almost stagnant production for the last four years. The Committee was unhappy to note that the physical performance of the company indicates a stagnant production as approx 14.5 MT of hot metal 13.6 MT of crude steel, 12.8 MT of saleable steel and 0.3 MT of pig iron during each of the last four years. The Standing Committee on Coal and Steel tabled in Parliament observed that orders worth around Rs 58,000 crore have been placed against which actual expenditure of Rs 42,893 crore has been incurred till Feb 13. SAIL has been implementing modernization and expansion plan of its five integrated steel plants at Bhilai, Bokaro, Rourkela, Durgapur and Burnpur and at the special steel plant in Salem to increase capacity of crude steel from 12.84 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) to 21.4 MTPA. Of this, expansion of Salem plant has been completed in 2010-11.
Alstom has been awarded a contract by Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL), to supply components and services for the 2x800 MW Gadarwara super thermal power plant located at Gadarwara, Narsingpur in the state of Madhya Pradesh. This contract is worth approximately €100 million. Under the scope of the contract, Alstom Thermal Power will cooperate with BHEL in designing the boilers and supply pressure parts of the 800 MW supercritical boilers along with pulverisers and airpreheater components. It will also assist BHEL with technical advisors during the erection and commissioning of the two units. Besides, key components will be manufactured from Alstom’s state-of-the-art facilities in Wellsville and Concordia in the USA as well as in Durgapur and Shahabad, India. The Unit I is expected to be commissioned in 2016, whilst Unit II is expected to be commissioned in 2017.
Godrej Properties (GPL), the real estate development arm of the Godrej Group, has entered into a Development Management Agreement with United Oxygen Company, to develop their property situated near Hoody, Whitefield Main Road, Bengaluru. The project will offer approximately 1,000,000 sq. ft. of saleable area and will be developed as a residential housing project. The site is strategically located on the Whitefield main road leading to the well-known IT/ITES establishments located in ITPB and EPIP zone of Whitefield. The proposed Phase 2 of the Bangalore Metro will enhance the connectivity to the project. This property also has excellent connectivity to the IT/ITES Belt at Bellandur on Outer Ring Road. Godrej Properties is a realty firm of Godrej group, promoted by Godrej Industries and Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing Company. It is one of the leading real estate development companies in India based in Mumbai, Maharashtra.
Emkay Global Financial Services would appeal before the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) against the National Stock Exchange’s (NSE) refusal to annul trades, which led to the collapse of NSE’s broad-market index, Nifty, by 15 percent in October 2012. The incident, which occurred on October 5, 2012, was attributed to erroneous trades by a broker at Emkay which led to trading being suspended for a few minutes. The broker has requested NSE not to release Rs51-crore payout to counterparties for 15 days to enable it to file the appeal before SAT. The brokerage house faces the dire prospect of coughing up Rs51 crore to counterparties, which is 21% more than its current m-cap of Rs42 crore. Emkay has a networth of Rs 137 crore as on September 30, 2012 and posted nearly Rs5 crore loss for nine-months ending December 2012.
Vadodara-based Alembic Pharmaceuticals is eyeing to capitalize on the recent approval from the US drug regulator for extended release Desvenlafaxine base tablets, which is bio-equivalent of Pfizer's popular drug Pristiq (Desvenlafaxine Succinate) which went off patent recently. The company expects significant revenue generation from the product, which will be marketed by Ranbaxy in the US market. Alembic has entered into an out-licensing agreement with Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals Inc. (RPI), a wholly owned subsidiary of Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited (RLL) to exclusively market Desvenlafaxine Base Extended Release tablets in the US healthcare system. Pfizer had sued Alembic to US court in June last year over alleged patent infringement with regards to its anti-depressant drug under the brand name Pristiq.
TVS Motor Company has planned a capital expenditure of Rs 175 crore for 2013-14, up from Rs 100 crore the previous year. The investment will support two launches. The company will introduce a motorcycle and a scooter during the course of the current financial year. In addition, the company has planned upgrades across the product portfolio, and will also launch a diesel three-wheeler during the year. With a complete portfolio, the company expects to improve its performance the next financial year. The company has registered a fall of 5% in its total sales during the month of April which stood at 165,215 units, as against 174,455 units reported in April 2012. The company registered total two-wheeler sales of 160,502 units in April 2013, down by 6.44% as against 171,551 units recorded in April 2012. Domestic sales stood at 142,794 units in the month of April 2013 against 151,181 units in April 2012, lower by 5.55%.
