Boskalis records historically high profit

Revenue in the first half of the year also rose by 1.6% to €1.57bn, while EBITDA amounted to €500.1m.

“Once again we can look back on a fantastic first half of the year with historically high EBITDA of half a billion euros,” said Peter Berdowski, CEO, Boskalis. “We are especially proud of the successful execution and swift realisation of the Suez Canal project, which was on an unprecedented scale and had to be completed within an extremely short timeframe.”

Royal Boskalis says Dredging and Inland Infra had a particularly busy first half. “Partly due to the Suez project, the dredging fleet was kept busy plying the waterways in the first half of the year. The high fleet utilisation made a strong contribution to the good result,” Mr Berdowski explained.

The company says the second half of the year will be “a different story” in terms of utilisation, particularly because it will have to catch up on vessel maintenance which will result in more expenses and less revenue.

“We also had a good first half in offshore, partly helped by the strong US dollar,” Mr Berdowski added. “Nevertheless, we too are increasingly experiencing volume and margin pressure in the short-term, capacity-driven activities.”

At the end of the first half of the year the order book stood at €2.963m.

Going forward, the company says it expects a prolonged period of low energy prices and “lean market conditions” in the offshore oil and gas market and so will be “tightening things up where necessary” in terms of organisation, fleet composition and capital expenditure.

By Rachael Doyle