Fincantieri chief executive Giuseppe Bono is targeting a return to pre-Covid form later this year.
The Italian shipbuilding giant racked up hefty pandemic-related losses of €245m ($296m) in 2020.
Revenue for the 12-month period ending 31 December 2020 dropped 11% to €5.1bn.
But the Trieste-headquartered company believes revenue will rebound. It forecasts growth of 25% to 30% this year as work resumes on its massive order backlog.
Fincantieri said that would be enough to enable the company to reinstate dividend payments from 2022.
The shipbuilder's production activities were hit hard when the Covid-19 pandemic forced the partial closure of some of its Italian facilities.
That led to a loss of 3.2m production hours in 2020 — 20% above what was planned.
Prompt response
However, Bono said the company adequately reacted to the pandemic's painful impact.
“In such a scenario, we have proven our prompt responsiveness, by rescheduling our production programmes and adjusting our operational processes accordingly," he said.
Production started to recover in the fourth quarter of 2020, and it is expected to be significantly higher this year.
That will be helped by the shipbuilder's massive backlog of orders.
This year alone, Fincantieri expects to deliver five cruiseships from its Italian shipbuilding facilities, as well as two from its Norwegian Vard yards.
“Fourth-quarter results show further progress with respect to those already made in the previous quarter," Bono said.
Scientific progress
He insisted more evidence of that is an order intake at €4.5bn, a total confirmed backlog of 97 vessels worth more than €35bn and deliveries stretching up to 2029.
“As long as scientific progress is made in treatments and vaccines, we expect growth of 25%, led by our considerable backlog, as well as improving marginality and return to profit,” Bono said.
New orders in 2020 were significantly below the 2019 figure, when a record tally of €8.7bn — including 13 cruiseships — was ordered.
However, the naval shipbuilding division continues to perform strongly.
On 26 February, Fincantieri announced that it had won an order — worth €1.35bn — to build two new-generation submarines for the Italian navy.
