Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. has just released its latest trading update, saying that the market picture for the coming period would be characterized by continued lower volumes of work and pressure on both utilization levels and margins.
Compared to the same period last year, revenue declined at virtually stable fleet utilization rates. Weak market conditions resulted in a considerably lower result, particularly at Offshore Energy.
Revenue at the Dredging & Inland Infra division declined slightly compared to the quarterly average achieved last year against a lower average margin.
Notable projects in the first quarter included port activities in the UK, Sweden, South Korea and Brazil as well as the construction of an island off the coast of Panama City. Given the circumstances, the utilization rate of the hopper fleet was good and slightly higher than the average utilization rate in 2016., Boskalis said.
The Queen of the Netherlands, the largest trailing suction hopper dredger in the fleet, came back into service in April after extensive repairs.
“The utilization rate of the cutter fleet was good in the first quarter following an extremely quiet 2016,” according to the announcement.
The order book of the Dredging & Inland Infra division increased compared to the end of 2016.
Notable new projects contracted include the development of the port of Duqm (Oman), the deepening and widening of the access channel to Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Mumbai (India), port activities in Brazil and Australia and an extension of the Fox River cleanup project in the United States.