BHEL to double export turnover
New Delhi: Power equipment major Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has said it was planning to double its overseas business to about Rs2000 crore during the eleventh five year plan.

BHEL would also go for projects in association with National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) in overseas projects. In the last five years BHEL has accumulated export orders of over Rs4,000 crore in diverse product areas.
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RINL cuts exports and boosts domestic sales
Visakhapatnam: Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd, Visakhapatnam, has increased its domestic sales considerably and cut down on its exports during the current financial year, in tune with Government policy, officials have said.

On the eve of RINL Formation Day, the company said that it was set to achieve a sales turnover of Rs7,500 crores by the year-end. While exports would be to the tune of around Rs250-300 crore, domestic sales would have increased considerably.The overall growth rate in the sales turnover would be 21 per cent, the company said.

RINL was likely to end the financial year with 3.9 million tonnes of hot metal (down by 3 per cent), 3.55 million tonnes of liquid steel and 3.1 million tonnes of saleable steel. The plant would also produce 8.5 lakh tonnes of value-added steel. During the first nine months of the current financial year, it had sold 2.17 million tonnes of steel, worth Rs5,200 crore.

The company had an ambitious expansion plan to increase capacity to 7 million tonnes by 2007-2008, a move that would require Rs8,250 crore. RINL would borrow Rs2,000 crore-Rs2,500 crore from the market, while the rest would be met from internal resources.
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Delphi -TVS to manufacture diesel engine components
Chennai: Delphi-TVS will invest Rs500 crore over the next five years for the production of various components for high-speed direct injection diesel engines. The company will also undertake manufacture of 'common rail fuel injection' systems and electronic control system.

The Delphi-TVS group joint venture is the largest supplier of rotary fuel injection systems in the country. Supply of common rail systems to engines made in India is expected to begin this year, Delphi-TVS officials said.

Today, India produces around 7,50,000 petrol engine cars and 1,80,000 cars with diesel engines. Delphi-TVS expects that by 2010, India will be producing a million petrol-powered cars and 6,00,000 diesel-powered cars a year.

As part of the investment programme, the company is beginning work on establishing a `technical centre' at its facility at Mannur, about 30 km from Chennai. The centre "will complement the current engineering facilities and focus on developing new products and applications to meet future emission norms."

It will be home to a range of equipment - such as a chassis dynamometer, cold room common rail engine test bed, and common rail test beds, emission test facility and calibration equipment. The company is expected to spend Rs50 crore on the facility. Ratan Tata, Chairman of the Tata group, will lay foundation stone for the technical centre on Friday. Guy Hachey, President, Delphi Energy and Chassis, US, and Suresh Krishna, Chairman, Sundram Fasteners, will also be attend the function.
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Raymond into JV to enhance worsted capacity
New Delhi: Raymond has said that it is planning to enhance its worsted capacity by three million metres.

The company has formed an equal stake joint venture with Italian company Cotonificio Honegger for setting up of a plant to manufacture and market high value-added cotton shirting fabrics, the company said.

It would invest Rs180 crore for setting up the JV plant with a capacity of 10.5 million metres and Rs100 crore for a worsted fabric capacity. The proposed JV is part of Raymond's strategy to expand its product portfolio by entering into cotton fabrics and half of its production would be exported.
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SKF India net profit up 75 per cent
Mumbai: SKF India Ltd posted a 75.58 per cent jump in net profit at Rs56.61 crore for the year ended December 31, 2004 compared to Rs32.20 crore for the year ended December 31, 2003. Total income surged by 23.66 per cent to Rs605.00 crore for 2004 as against Rs489.22 crore for 2003.

The board has recommended a dividend of 25 per cent on the paid-up capital.

For the fourth quarter ending December, the company posted 30.72 per cent rise in net profit at Rs15.70 crore 2004 compared to Rs12.01 crore in Q4 of previous fiscal.

Total income increased to Rs169.92 crore for the Q4 last year against Rs136.16 crore in the previous year.
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HC approves Pharmacia and Pfizer merger
Mumbai: The merger between Pfizer Ltd and Pharmacia Healthcare Ltd has received sanction with the Bombay High Court approving the scheme of amalgamation between the two companies. The court approval came through its order issued earlier this month, Pfizer informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The parent company, Pfizer Inc, holds 40 per cent in Pfizer Ltd and 75 per cent in Pharmacia Healthcare. The merger brings the combined holding of the parent company in its listed entity to 41.23 per cent.

Last year, the boards of Pfizer and Pharmacia had approved the scheme of amalgamation of the two companies and fixed an exchange ratio of five Pharmacia shares to one Pfizer share.

The amalgamation scheme will be operative from December 1, 2003 and Pfizer's accounts will be consolidated with Pharmacia Healthcare Ltd for the accounting period ended November 30, 2004, the company announcement said.
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Dwarikesh Sugar into Rs.110 crore expansion plan
Mumbai: Dwarikesh Sugar Industries has announced a Rs110-crore expansion plan to set up a 5,500 tonnes crushed sugar per day greenfield project at Bahadarpur in Bijnor district, Uttar Pradesh.

The project, due to be commissioned by November 2005, will entail the full benefits of sugarcane cycle for FY06, the company said in a news release.

"The Greenfield project is in line with our company's growth strategy to become a large integrated sugar conglomerate with interests in synergistic businesses," the release said.
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SAIL set for nine per cent growth in domestic sales
Kolkata: The Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) will sell approximately 9.6 million tonnes of steel in the domestic market during the current financial year (2004-05) against 8.8 mt in the last fiscal. The public sector steel major expects to register a growth of 9 per cent in its domestic sales against the average growth of 7-8 per cent of the Indian steel sector.

Although all the four integrated plants of SAIL suffered from coking coal shortages in the first two quarters, but the units were fast making up in the second half of the year.

SAIL had re-oriented its production and marketing strategies to cater to the growing demands of the domestic industry. In the last quarter, the company was expecting a 10 per cent growth on a year-on-year basis.

Through a judicious use of production facilities and appropriate product mix the company was able to generate approximately Rs500 crore of extra revenue during the first nine months of the year.

The company registered growth in almost all sectors. TMT bars grew by 30 per cent; hot-rolled products by 15 per cent; sales to governmental and public sector bodies by 24 per cent. SAIL's business with small-scale sector increased by 70 per cent. SAIL had also deliberately cut down its exports from 1.1 mt in 2003-04 to 40 lakh tonnes in 2004-05 to meet domestic market requirements.
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Pratt & Whitney targets the Indian aviation industry
Hyderabad: Pratt & Whitney Corporation, a pioneer in flight technology powering the civil aviation industry, has firmed up plans with several Indian airlines including Air Deccan.

Pratt &Whitney says that every second aircraft that lands and takes off is powered by a Pratt &Whitney engine and expects the momentum to continue with the growth of the aviation sector in the region.

About thirty aircraft ordered by Air Deccan, both ATRs and others, are powered by Pratt & Whitney engines, along with the likes of Saras, the indigenous 14-seater, passenger aircraft.

The company is commissioning a development centre with Infotech Enterprises Ltd. Together, Pratt & Whitney and Infotech Enterprises, work on complicated engineering design work through a near shore centre.

With the Indian aviation industry opening up and more players placing orders for modern aircraft, a good number of them would be powered by Pratt & Whitney engines, the company said. It has already tied up with Indian Airlines and Air Deccan and expects to be part of other airlines planning their expansion in India.
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Nokia gets 'Brand of the Year' award
Chennai: Mobile phone brand Nokia has been named the CII Brand of the Year in a contest that saw three made-in-India brands among the ten finalists.

The ten finalists, apart from Nokia, included Titan, Eveready, Dabur Chyawanprash, Indane, Fair & Lovely, Lux, Pond's, Rin Advanced and Pond's Body Lotion. There were 135 entries in all.
Nokia has already been judged by brand consulting firm Vertebrand as among the ten most valuable brands in the world.

For the CII award, too, Vertebrand was involved in the process of evaluating the brands before a short-list of ten companies made presentations to a five-member jury, which included K.N. Shenoy, Gurcharan Das, S. Ramachander, Mani Ayer, and Dorab Sopariwalla.
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Haier launches mobile handsets
Kolkata: Haier Appliances (India) Pvt. Ltd, the wholly owned subsidiary of China-based multinational company Haier Group, has launched its mobile phones in India.

The products have been competitively priced. While the entry-level model costs Rs3,654, the high-end pen-sized phone is priced at Rs14,940. This phone is equipped with a 300K pixel camera and a dicta-phone.

Haier Appliances, said the company hopes to sell around five lakh sets this year and acquire a considerable market share by the year end. The products would be sourced from Haier's manufacturing facility in China. Haier has a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility for both GSM and CDMA handsets, and has a capacity to produce 15 million handsets per year.

Haier also has manufacturing facilities for home appliances and consumer electronics in 13 countries including the US, Europe, West Asia, Africa and South Asia.
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