India Inc's order-books swelled to Rs 37,666 crore (Rs 376.66 billion) in the first quarter of the financial year 2008-2009, up 93 per cent from Rs 19,520 crore (Rs 195.2 billion) for the same period last year. In the fourth quarter of 2007-08, the order-book had increased by 121 per cent to Rs 42,545 crore (Rs 19,280 crore).
Engineering, construction and infrastructure firms were high on the order book list with 20 companies cornering Rs 21,646 crore (Rs 216.46 billion) worth of orders from central and state governments, as well as from public sector and private firms.
The number game
Besides, firms in power and oil and gas sectors also got orders worth Rs 11,300 crore, while the remaining orders worth Rs 4,720 crore (Rs 47.2 billion) bagged by water supply, steel pipes and road construction companies.
Out of the Rs 37,666 crore order-book, 55 per cent, or Rs 20,583 crore (Rs 205.83 billion), worth of orders were received from the Central government, state governments and PSU companies. Another 31 per cent or Rs 11,685 crore (RS 116.85 billion) came from the private sector and the rest 14 per cent or Rs 5,398 crore (Rs 53.98 billion) from overseas firms.
State governments have given construction orders to Lanco Infratech, BHEL, Larsen and Tourbo and Unity Infraprojects, while PSL, Era Infra Engineering, IVRCL Infrastructure and Punj Lloyd have bagged orders from the Central government.
Of the 53 firms in the engineering and construction sector, eight firms received orders of more than Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion), 26 companies bagged orders between Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) and Rs 1,000 crore and 20 firms grabbed orders in the range of Rs 10 crore to Rs 100 crore each.
Lanco Infratech has bagged Rs 8,000 crore (Rs 80 billion) orders in the last three months, which includes the largest container transshipment port project in Kerala.
Larsen and Toubro received Rs 7,223 crore (Rs 72.23 billion) of engineering and construction orders, including Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion) from Bombay Dyeing, Rs 1,687 order from the Government of Rajasthan, Rs 1,557 crore (Rs 15.57 billion) from Andhra Pradesh Power Development Company and Rs 1,000 crore from the Coastal Gujarat Power.
PSL (Rs 3,518 crore), BHEL (Rs 3,368 crore), Punj Lloyd (Rs 2,513 crore), Era Infra Engineering (Rs 1,521 crore), IVRCL Infra (Rs 1,322 crore) and Nagarjuna Constructions (Rs 1,158 crore) bagged orders worth more than Rs 1,000 crore each during the first quarter.