Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) has suspended three verticals - thermal power, ports and hydrocarbons - that were started nearly a year ago for large business. Current economic slowdown has guaranteed that the input of these verticals to HCC's current order book of roughly Rs 18,000 crore is insignificant.
In the past one year only one of these three verticals, thermal power, bagged an order for Rs 230 crore. The ports vertical has been implementing Rs 608-crore construction works for Naval Dockyard in Mumbai but the order was bagged before the vertical was formed. HCC will complete these two projects, but will not look for new business for the three verticals.
HCC's focus will be on five verticals: hydro power, water, nuclear power, transportation and EPC (engineering, procurement & construction). The reformation at HCC has been triggered by the woes of the Indian construction sector. The industry's order book shrunk by 38% in the quarter ended September 2011. This setback came after five years of 20% average annual growth.
