Van Oord Reports Record Revenue for 2015

March 15, 2016

The 2015 was a year of major projects that made a significant contribution to Van Oord’s revenue and profit growth.

The company reported a record revenue of EUR 2.579 billion (2014: EUR 2.104 billion), an increase of 23%, and a record profit of EUR 169 million (2014: EUR 119 million).

These figures are attributable to the successful execution of several major projects, including construction of the Second Suez Canal. The order portfolio totaled EUR 2.349 billion at year-end 2015 (2014: EUR 3.222 billion), down 27% on 2014.

Pieter van Oord, CEO: “Van Oord was part of a four-party consortium that successfully constructed this new 35-kilometer bypass within an extremely tight deadline of ten months. More than 25 vessels dredged well over 200 million cubic meters of sand in record time. On some days, we produced more than one million cubic meters.”

Major works still in execution are the Prorva project in Kazakhstan and the land reclamation project for the KNPC refinery in Kuwait.

Fleet capacity utilization was good in 2015. At 37 weeks, capacity utilization of Van Oord trailing suction hopper dredgers exceeded 2014 by an average of four weeks. Compared with 35 weeks in 2014, the company’s cutter suction dredgers were active 39 weeks – a new record.

With the low oil price causing capital expenditure to decrease in the oil and gas sector, the activities faced challenging circumstances. Oil & Gas and Wind business units had fewer new projects than originally expected.

According to the company’s release, conditions in the markets will remain challenging in 2016.

The low prices of oil, iron ore, coal, copper and other commodities, and the economic and political problems in emerging countries like Brazil, China, and Russia will lead to a lower market volume and pressure on prices. The market for oil and gas, in particular, worsened rapidly in the past year and is not expected to improve in 2016.

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