Finnish ship systems and technology giant Wartsila has pushed up profit as vessel ordering activity continued to accelerate.
Chief executive Hakan Agnevall said there were signs of stabilisation and recovery in its markets, despite the prevailing uncertainty.
Cruiseship and ferry deals remain thin on the ground, but the company said 829 contracts for new vessels were registered at yards worldwide in the second quarter.
This is up from 312 a year ago, mainly due to a surge in containership orders and, to a lesser extent, tanker and bulker activity.
Net profit grew to €35m ($41m) in the three months to 30 June, from €23m in 2020, but revenue dipped to €1.1bn from €1.2bn. The order intake increased by 14% to €1.15bn.
Eco-fuel fleet growing
Wartsila said newbuilding prices increased and the demand for spare parts and maintenance developed positively.
There were 170 orders for alternative fuel-capable vessels in the first half of the year, while 3.9% of the operational fleet and 31.2% of the orderbook in gross tonnage terms is now able to use these fuels or battery-hybrid propulsion.
However, the Marine Systems unit suffered from low revenue due to postponed scrubber retrofits.
"While scrubber retrofitting activity is still recovering from the Covid-19 impact, there were more than 100 newbuild orders globally for scrubber-fitted units reported in the review period," Wartsila said.
Fuel spread steady
The price differential between high and low-sulphur fuels has remained slightly above $100 per tonne since January.
"Although the earnings differential for vessels fitted with scrubbers has widened since 2020, the retrofit market for scrubbers is still characterised by a high degree of uncertainty, mostly due to the limited visibility on future fuel price spreads," the company said.
Demand for digitalised and greener solutions supported growth in the voyage division's order intake and revenue.
The number of vessels connected to Wartsila's cloud solutions increased by 78%.
"We expect the demand environment in the third quarter to be better than that of the corresponding period in the previous year," the company said.
