The FINANCIAL -- Alstom SA said Friday it's
receiving most of its new orders from emerging markets such as China,
India and Brazil as the developed economies slowed, a fact that has led
the French maker of power equipment and trains to spend bulk of its
annual investment of EUR500 million in the growth regions, according to Borsa Italiana - London Stock Exchange Group.
Patrick Kron, Alstom's chairman and chief executive, told a news conference, that the company earlier generated close to two-third of its activities in western Europe and North America.
Kron was in Vadodara, in the western Indian state of Gujarat, to inaugurate the commissioning of two super heavy machines at Alstom's hydro power equipment manufacturing unit.
He said Alstom now receives two-third of its new orders from the emerging markets.
Alstom's orders in the nine months through December rose 20% to EUR15.1 billion, due largely to a more than doubling in contracts from Eastern Europe, including Russia, and a 26% rise in Africa and the Middle East. Orders in Western Europe, Alstom's biggest market, rose 15%.
Kron said Alstom's presence in India in non-conventional power generation businesses such as hydro, nuclear and renewables may help it to ward off the current slowdown in India's electricity sector.
A shortage of coal is threatening to cripple India's plans to add about 80 gigawatt of generation capacity in next five to six years. The world's second-fastest-growing major economy has an installed generation capacity of 186.6 GW, majority of which is coal-based.
India contributed 5% of Alstom's global order book of EUR18 billion last year. The company has four research and development centers and 10 manufacturing facilities across India, of which two are upcoming.
Kron said he is bullish on the long-term prospects of India's power sector and would seek to use the country to serve customers in other South Asian countries and the Middle East.
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