95% projects in West Asia are progressing as usual: L&T
L&T, said in a press briefing on Saturday, the company’s first major status update since the US-Israel-Iran war broke out on 28 February.Most of the work suspension has been voluntary, he said, to ensure the safety of the company’s staff. At two sites, customers recommended temporarily halting work, he added.The company has not yet evacuated any staff from the region, but it is also not sending new people there from India at the moment, he said.
The engineering firm has about 8,000 staff, 2,000 family members, and 20,000 contract workers in the region.Sarma’s comments come at a time when L&T shares have slipped by nearly a fifth since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran three weeks ago, closing at ₹3,434.8 on BSE on Friday. The Sensex has lost just over 8% during this period.Analysts at Motilal Oswal trimmed their price target for the stock to ₹4,400 from ₹4,600 earlier due to the crisis.
“We have limited clarity on how things will unfold in the Middle East (West Asia) over the medium term, but in the near term, it can impact execution as well as margins for certain projects,” the analysts wrote in a 4 March report.L&T is involved in large-scale engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) work in West Asia, spanning petroleum drilling, refining, transportation infrastructure, renewable energy plants, water treatment facilities, and energy transmission infrastructure.A big concern for the firm at the moment is logistics and supply chain management, Sarma said. Significant equipment and materials come to the project sites in the region from China and Europe.
Movement of all this seaborne cargo has come to a halt, he said. However, there were three months’ worth of material at the sites, providing a
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