EIL turns focus to Middle East as its Abu Dhabi office logs 57% growth in orders in a year
New Delhi: State-run Engineers India Limited (EIL) is planning to develop its office in Abu Dhabi as a global hub to tap into business opportunities from the Middle East region as orders from the region have already swelled by a humongous 57 percent with a year, Chairperson and Managing Director (CMD) Vartika Shukla told reporters on Wednesday. Shukla said that the Navratna PSU’s business inflow from its Abu Dhabi office stood at Rs 93 crore in FY2022-23, which rose to Rs 146 crore in FY2023-24. “This year (FY25), we already have an inflow of about Rs 141 crore. The Middle East region presents business opportunity of several billion dollars,” said the EIL CMD.
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She added that the significance of the Middle East region for EIL can gauged from the fact that its employee strength in the Abu Dhabi office has grown from around 30 employees about a year-and-a-half ago to more than 140 at present. “Why are we focussed on ADNOC (Abu Dhabi National Oil Company) and the UAE? One, they are investing in a project to expand their oil producing capacity from 4 mb/d to 5 mb/d. They are focussed on various verticals whether it is offshore, onshore, gas, petrochemicals, etc. They find a lot of value in our services. As a company, we are now very focussed on shaping our Abu Dhabi office as a hub to cater to a lot of projects around the UAE also,” the CMD told reporters. Around 90-95 percent of EIL’s turnover comes from oil and gas segments currently. And the Middle East is one of the key regions in the world where investments into the oil and gas industry is expected to continue in the short-to-medium term, with increased focus on maximising oil and gas production and setting up petrochemical projects and refineries.
EIL revives offshore division, eyes offshore wind projects
Currently, EIL’s renewable energy business forms only 2.5-3 percent of its orderbook, however, the figure is expected to rise sharply in the next few years with the company looking to capitalise on the investment opportunities presented by India’s target of putting in place 500 GW of Renewable Energy (RE) capacity by 2030. Shukla said that EIL has also revived its offshore division and has also initiated negotiations with renewable energy developers to design and develop offshore wind infrastructure in India. “We have been in discussions with clients... for offshore wind. We have also revived our offshore department, where we were very active some years ago. Our experience in the offshore oil and gas business lends us confidence. We are fully capable in designing the deck, platforms and jackets. That capability is what we are offering to our clients,” said Shukla. However, she did not specify a target for undertaking orders from the renewable energy sector, stating that it would be pre-mature to comment until orders come.
Private sector orders form 20%, international orders 25-30% of orderbook: EIL CMD
Until a few years ago, the bulk of EIL’s business came from the public sector, however, that’s changing as orders from the private sector now form 20 percent of the orderbook of EIL. “We had 10-12 percent of business in-flow from private sector. Today, we have 20 percent business from them. In FY21, from the private sector, we had an inflow of around Rs 233 crore and in FY24, we had an inflow of about Rs 650 crore,” said the EIL CMD.
At the end of March 2024, EIL’s order book stood at Rs 7,823 crore. In the current financial year, the CPSU has already secured new business orders worth Rs 4,681 crore, taking its orderbook value to around Rs 11,350 crore as on August 31, the CMD told reporters. The share of international business orders in the new orders received is 25-30 percent, said Shukla.
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