BHEL, a state-owned company whose main business is the manufacture of boilers and turbine for thermal power plants, is now looking for joint venture partners for getting into the production of electrolysers and fuel cells.
The company will come out with an invitation for 'expression of interest' (EOI) within one week, the Business Line newspaper reports, quoting an unnamed official.
BHEL had first come out with a EOI on November 10 for the same purpose and had set November 30 as the deadline for the responses.
“BHEL is seeking interest for partnering with it to address growing Hydrogen economy business through manufacturing of (i) Electrolyser System for Hydrogen Production and (ii) Hydrogen based PEM Fuel Cell System,” the invitation for EOI had said. “Based on the responses received, a separate request for partnership shall be issued by BHEL for selection of Partner(s) in the targeted areas of Hydrogen Value Chain business,” it had said.
The source said that the response was good and a team is evaluating the responses, but did not wish to give out any further details as the matter was still “internal”, says the news report.
Asked why a second EOI, the official said that the first one was more to test the market, based on which “we will not enter into any tie-up". The upcoming invitation would be more detailed and would possibly result in joint ventures, the Business Line report quotes the official as saying.
Apart from boilers, turbines and transmission products, BHEL also has had a presence in transportation—it produces locomotive engines. It also from time to time produces some products, such as guns, for the Defence.
Comment
BHEL is broke, mainly because its business mainstay, thermal power projects, is dying with no hopes of revival. In 2020-21, it made a net loss of ₹2,717 crore, on a turnover of ₹16,296 crore. In the first half of the current financial year, its turnover was ₹7,634 crore and net loss ₹513 crore.
But BHEL's problems run deeper--very poor R&D and reluctance to enter new businesses. The writing has been on the wall clearly for quite some time that the thermal power business would go. Yet, the company got into no new businesses. In the past, the company has toyed with many diversifications, from small passenger planes to wind turbines, but inertia always prevailed.
The second EOI, soon after the first one, perhaps indicates that the response to the first one was nothing much to write home about.
However, it may not be a bad idea for a technology company to tie-up with BHEL because of the immense manufacturing facilities it has. The company is an expert in heaving engineering. Therefore, one should welcome its foray into electrolyers, fuel cells. Better late than never.
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