A renewed interest among shipowners in newbuildings has boosted revenue at French classification giant Bureau Veritas.
The Paris-based group’s marine and offshore revenue totalled €122.1m ($131m) in the first quarter, up from €113.1m year on year.
BV has been benefiting from increasing decarbonisation trends and the energy transition, it said.
The company noted a “solid double-digit” increase in new construction activity, supported by a strong orderbook made up of various types and sizes of vessels.
This business made up 40% of divisional revenue.
New orders totalled 2.8m gt at the end of March, up 21% from the same period of last year, in a stable shipping market.
“This brings the orderbook to a healthy 23.3m gt at the end of the quarter, up 9.7% year on year,” BV said.
In-service operations contributed 47% of marine and offshore revenue.
There was double-digit growth here too, driven by price increases and volume rises due to a bigger classed fleet.
At the end of March, BV classed 11,823 ships, representing 150.8m gt.
This is up from 11,705 vessels of 148.7m gt at the end of December.
Overall revenue up
Group revenue hit €1.44bn in the first quarter, up 2.5% year on year.
In February, BV posted record earnings for 2023, with its marine division emerging as one of its best-performing businesses.
The testing, certification and inspection group said net profit rose 7.9% to €503.7m.
Revenue was up 3.8% to €5.8bn.
BV was selected towards the end of 2023 to class the world’s largest ammonia carriers for Greek owner Naftomar Shipping & Trading, to be built by South Korea’s Hanwha Ocean.
