Marine and offshore business provided the best operating margin for Bureau Veritas (BV) in the first half of 2021, even though the division’s revenue and profit grew slower than the average across the group.
The shipping business posted solid growth in the first half of 2021, the French classification society said, as the “market experienced a very sharp rebound, with a threefold increase in worldwide new orders” by gross tonnage from the first half of 2020.
The division’s operating margin was 23.5%, compared with a group average of 15.6% in the period. Marine revenue rose to €189.2m ($224.9m) in the first half, a 2.3% jump from the same period of last year, and operating profit lifted 4% to €44.4m.
Marine business rebounded with new vessel orders and strong activity in ‘core In-service activities’ which benefited from a favourable timing of inspections, BV said.
The orders increase was driven by containerships and the energy market, BV said, as it took new orders achieved of 4.8m gt for the first six months of this year, up 50% from 3.2m gt in the same period of 2020.
BV’s orderbook stood at 15.3m gt, up from 14.1m gt in December 2020, and remained “well diversified with LNG fuelled ships, containerships and specialised vessels”.
Overall BV made a group operating profit of €346.1m, up from €59.6m in the first half of 2020, as revenue for its consumer products, certification, and buildings and infrastructure divisions rebounded most strongly following lockdown measures in 2020.
During the second quarter, BV set up online platform VeriSTAR Green to allow shipowners to assess compliance with the International Maritime Organization's carbon intensity regulations ahead of the 2023 deadline.
It also signed a deal with shipbroker Barry Rogliano Salles and vessel designer Deltamarin to provide ship performance and energy transition solutions, it said.
BV added that it aims to cut its own carbon emissions by 30% to 2 tonnes per year and per employee by 2025, from 2.85 tonnes in 2019.
It also wants to increase the proportion of women in leadership positions to 35% by 2025, up from 19.5% in 2019.
“The group has a solid financial structure with no maturities to refinance until 2023, BV added, with €1.27bn in available cash and cash equivalents and €600m in undrawn committed credit lines.
