Keppel Corp has said its offshore and marine division was profitable in the first nine months of 2021, reversing a year-ago loss.
The Singapore-listed conglomerate made the disclose in its latest voluntary business update. However, it did not provide any figures.
Keppel did say that its revenue for the year-to-date had inched up 9% year-on-year to SGD 1.2bn ($890m).
The company also disclosed that despite Covid-19, its order back had increased by 67% to SGD 5.5bn at the end of September, from SGD 3.3bn at the start of the year.
The company said it has achieved a reduction in overheads of over SGD 90m in the year-to-date and said it will "continue to streamline operations".
Keppel has been "proactively rightsizing" its offshore operations and reducing overheads since 2015 and the running total is about SGD 525m in savings.
Keppel said the pandemic continues to pose manpower and supply chain challenges but said it "continues to work closely with customers and focus on execution".
"Supply chain challenges and also the limits on entry of foreign workers are consistent challenges faced by the offshore and marine industry," said Chris Ong, chief executive of Keppel Offshore & Marine.
"We have always said that while we face challenges, we have worked very closely with our customers and all our suppliers.
"One of the ways that we are helping the customers and ourselves is to look at our network of yards around the world."
Ong said the company was also using technology to overcome some of the supply chain disruptions such as using smart glasses that help eliminate the need to bring external service engineers into the country.
"For foreign workers, we are also working with the authorities to go through the 'bubble wrap' process. It is a very stringent process to bring in foreign workers, but we are progressing along. So, I think it's a multi-pronged approach," he said.
On the back of the recent rise in oil price, Keppel said it was seeing signs of improvement in the jack-up rig market.
"Utilisation rates are improving, and we have been receiving more enquiries on bareboat charters for our rig assets, though the sale of rig assets may take longer to materialise," the company said.
The company said that discussions on the proposed combination of Keppel Offshore & Marine and Sembcorp Marine were "progressing steadily".
Keppel Corp chief executive Loh Chin Hua was asked by an analyst during the subsequent conference call if he could provide more colour on the state of the discussions.
"We are working towards doing this by the end of the year, but it could slip. I do not want to predict these sorts of things because it involves more than one party," he said.
"From our perspective, we are working towards it. Hopefully we will be able to get that done as soon as possible."
