Ashish Bhandari, MD and CEO, Thermax, believes it is too early to say how Omicron will impact the industry. He explained that by February-March, he will be in a position to determine the impact of the new COVID-19 variant on the company's business, if any.

Speaking on Thermax's orderbook, Bhandari said the contribution of green and clean businesses stands at nearly 70 percent, and fossil fuels account for the remaining 30 percent.

“Thermax’s orderbook currently is 70 percent of green businesses, driven by applications like waste heat energy, biomass, solar and very specific water applications. The remaining 30 percent is driven by fossil fuels and related businesses,” he said.

Bhandari also said the company is one of the biggest players in biomass, however, as far as the solar sector goes, it still has a long way to go before its presence can be considered meaningful.

Detailing the input costs and pressure on margin borne by the company, he said, “Input cost continues to go up and in each quarter, we plan for input cost, but it’s going up more than our expectation. So multiple of our business lines are affected and I do not see that slowing down. And, definitely, there is margin pressure; yields going, raw material and freight prices going up... So there is a significant commodity pressure, which will reflect a bit on the margins.”

Also Read: Climate change on agenda of every board; to increase solar capex: Thermax

Thermax shares jumped as much as 6.6 percent to Rs 1,923.6 apiece on BSE before giving up about half of those gains. At noon, the Thermax stock was up 3.3 percent at Rs 1,864.2 apiece.

Watch the accompanying video for the full interview

First Published:Jan 5, 2022 11:41 AM IST