BEML profit narrows to Rs 98 cr in June quarter

BEML Ltd on Friday reported narrowing of its consolidated profit to Rs 98.21 crore for the quarter ended June 30. The company had posted a consolidated profit of Rs 162.56 crore in the year-ago period, BEML Ltd said in a filing to the BSE.

Its consolidated income during the June 2019 quarter increased to Rs 589.10 crore, compared with Rs 457.91 crore a year ago. Stating that the company's order book position has improved substantially over the years, BEML CMD Deepak Kumar Hota said the order book on hand was roughly about Rs 8,900 crore.

"Of this, Defence is Rs 2,673 crore, rail and metro is Rs 5,010 crore and mining and construction is Rs 1,250 crore," he told reporters here. BEML Ltd serves core sectors such as defence, rail, power, mining and infrastructure.

The company operates under three major business verticals -- mining and construction, defence, and rail and metro. Hota said that during the year the company expects orders in defence worth Rs 1,500 crore and Rs 1,600 crore in rail and metro.

"In mining and construction, we expect 10 per cent increase by the end of the year in the order book position..." he added. Company officials said they are "looking in a big way" towards aerospace related orders.

"We have some trial orders from ISRO....also there are HAL orders, we are also looking outside India like Lockheed Martin- we are holding discussions with them. Lockheed is looking for ground handling and ground support equipment and airborne structures at later stages," they said.

Speaking about mining and construction, Hota said Coal India has indicated about 15 high end dump trucks order to BEML, which are usually imported and cost about Rs 18-20 crore each. He said BEML was looking for a Joint Venture with Coal India for making indigenous equipment..