Bureau Veritas’ marine & offshore division, which constitutes its classification business, improved its top line for the first quarter, thanks to rises in newbuildings and vessel surveys.
The segment brought in €113m ($124m) in revenue for the first three month, up 11.5% from the same period in 2022.
“New orders totalled 2.3m gt at the end of March 2023 (similar to the prior year period) in a shipping market down in the first quarter,” Bureau Veritas said.
“This brings the orderbook to 21.2m gt at the end of the quarter, up 5.5% compared to December 2022.”
Newbuildings accounted for 39% of the French classification society’s total revenue.
Bureau Veritas conducted more than 11,500 ship surveys that represented 144.8m grt to post “solid double-digit growth” compared with a year ago, due to Covid-delayed occasional surveys and positive pricing.
The ships surveyed remain “highly diversified”, consisting of LNG-fuelled ships, container ships and specialised vessels.
Revenue for the testing, verification and certification company totalled €1.4bn for the quarter, up 8.9% from a year earlier.
Full-year revenue for the marine & offshore business totalled €418.3m for 2022, up 11.5% from the previous year, thanks to strong newbuilding demand for LNG carriers and LNG-fuelled container ships.
Overall in 2022, the company earned revenue of €5.65bn, up 13.4%, with an operating profit of €902m, up 12.5%.
Net profit rose by 10.9% to €466.7m.
