Suzlon shows signs of recovery – reNews

Indian wind turbine manufacturer has Suzlon reported a rise in profitability with EBITDA of RS196 crore (€22m) in Q4 FY21, a significant improvement on the RS367 crore loss recorded for the same period in 2020. 

This was driven by a rise in revenues of RS1120 crore, up from RS643 crore in the same period last year. 

The increase translated into a new loss (pre-exceptional items) of RS53 crore, compared to a loss of RS823 crore in Q4 FY20. 

However, its subsidiary Suzlon Wind Energy Corporation, USA (SWECO), filed for voluntary liquidation in the United States Bankruptcy Court of the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division under Chapter 7 of the United States Bankruptcy Code and Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure of the USA on June 29, 2021.

The board of SWECO took this decision in wake of continued financial stress sustained by its operations during the pandemic.

It said it does not foresee this decision to have any direct and/or material impact on Suzlon Energy.

Suzlon Group chairman and managing director Tulsi Tanti said: “It was an unprecedented and challenging year where economies around the world were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Unfortunately, India was and still remains one of the worst effected countries.

“Like all industries in the country, the Indian Wind Energy sector has also been adversely impacted mainly due to uncertainty and operational issues posed by the pandemic.

“The sector was restricted to low volumes with installations of only 1.5GW which is lower by almost 30% from last year which amounts to only 15-18% capacity utilization in India.

“Despite that total wind energy installations in India stand at 39.24GW which is nearly 42% of the total renewable energy installations in the country.

“Massive global push for renewables post COVID-19 and the Government’s thrust on ‘Make in India’ and ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ will help Suzlon manufacture wind turbines and its components for the sector as a whole in the future and reduce imports while creating long term sustainable jobs and energy security.”

Chief executive Ashwani Kumar said: “For Suzlon, this was the first year of restarting our operations post debt restructuring.

“While our installations remained low, our strategic imperatives for the year were restarting our manufacturing facilities, ensuring continuation of our OMS operations without interruptions and fulfilling the obligations of our debt restructuring.

“However, exponential increase in commodity prices like those of steel has impacted our profitability significantly in India.

“Our service business teams have done exceptionally well in keeping all our sites operational to generate uninterrupted power throughout the lockdown period, safe-guarding our customer’s assets and revenues, while providing an essential service to the nation.

“We closed the year with a healthy order-book of over 817MW which we aim to service this year.”