BHEL was once the dominant player in India's power equipment manufacturing sector, but it began losing market share to Chinese rivals in the 2000s. Chinese companies offered lower prices, faster delivery times, and more financing options, putting BHEL at a cost disadvantage. To counter the growing competition, BHEL entered joint ventures with state utilities to improve its order book, launched new product lines, cut costs through sourcing parts from China, and aimed to improve delivery performance and reassure private clients. However, BHEL still faced challenges from the major capacity and technological advantages held by top Chinese power equipment manufacturers.

1. Case Presentation: Business Strategies
BHEL:Losing Out to Chinese Rivals ?
Presented by:
Utkarsh (13BSP1230)
Pooja (13BSP0537)
Karan Rathi(13BSP)
Mallika Sharma(13BSP1511)
Akanksha(13BSP1797)

2. INTRODUCTION
 BHEL was established in 1964,deals in manufacturing power plants equipment in India.
 During in 2011, BHEL is known as the dominant player and was ranked as the ninth most innovative
company in the world by US business magazine, FORBES.
 BHEL manufactured over 180 products that catered to the core sectors of the Indian economy such as
power, transmission, industry, transportation, oil & gas, non-conventional energy sources,
telecommunication & defense.
 BHEL established its first 60MW boiler for the ENNORE THERMAL POWER PLANT
near CHENNAI.
 They were also focusing on export order too in the early 1970’s in Malaysia with successful
distribution channels.
 NOT only Successful delivery they also created a repetitive delivery in several countries to whom they
delivered earlier due to their strong bonding with customer’s .
Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited

3. What turns BHEL for having a joint venture ?
 Capacity constraints
 New Entrants (Adani Power Ltd. Tata Power Ltd, Reliance Power Ltd, Lanco Infratech Ltd,
GMR Energy Ltd and GVK Group placed orders with foreign companies)-DOMESTIC COMPETITORS
 Open Economy-Many new foreign countries (Chinese,Korean,Russian) are coming with
advanced and updated technologies with more MW capacity.
 The first UMPP at Mundra, Gujarat, was constructed by Tata Power, with equipment imported
from Japan.
 Having capacity constraints for the manufacture of power equipment, BHEL’s capacity of 6000 MW
was increased to 10,000 MW in December 2007
To survive the competition, BHEL entered into a joint venture with NTPC Ltd. to execute
engineering, procurement, and construction of power projects on a 50:50 partnership.
UMPP: ultra mega power projects

4. BHEL VS CHINESE PLAYERS
 BHEL was the high cost supplier of power equipment whereas Chinese players products were low priced
and were delivered on time.
 BHEL equipment for unit of power producer needs to spend Rs 2 as fixed cost whereas in Chinese equipment
reduced its fixed cost to Rs 1.4 or 1.5.
 Chinese was experienced in producing BTG (Boiler turbine generator) whereas BHEL was just about mastering
the technology.
 BHEL commissioned a 600 MW unit delivery in 36 months whereas Chinese commissioned in 30 months.
 Chinese companies had standard power point design and they use to assemble parts using nuts n bolts whereas
BHEL used welding for projects which was time consuming.
 BHEL Has an edge over competitors as Chinese companies did not offer tailor made designs which provides units
that could be adapted to local conditions.
 Interest rates charged by Indian banks was 10 to 13% while Chinese bank charged just 4 to 6% making a significant
difference in cost of project.

5. INCREASING THREAT FROM CHINESE RIVALS
 BHEL, the 12th largest power equipment manufacturer in the world faced stiffed competition from Chinese power
equipment players.
 Analysts pointed out a lot of weaknesses in BHEL like the capacity constraints, delayed delivery performance,
cost factors, etc.
 BHEL started losing to Chinese rivals from the year 2000.
 The Chinese players, who had little or no existence a few decades ago, took away 50% market share from BHEL.
 Indian power companies struggled to get finance for their projects and it helped Chinese companies to gain a
strong foothold in India.

6. Taking on Competition
Strategy to counter competition.
New subsidiary to function as the financing arm for power projects.
Improve order book. BHEL formed joint venture with state utilities like Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and
Karnataka.
Decided to go multi modal to bring down logistics costs.
Launch a new range of products equipment sets of 600mv. 500mv equipment upgraded to 525 mv and
250mv-270mv.
10 year wage agreement with unions.
BHEL needs to internalize R&D and reduce dependency for critical technologies.
Needs to reassure the private section that they can deliver on time and at competitive prices.
Increase vendor base in China.
Sourcing from china along with other cost cutting measure enabled BHEL to reduce material cost at
around 60%

7. THANKING YOU
FOR YOUR PATIENCE…