Great Lakes Dredge Reports Strong First Quarter

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation (GLDD) has just reported financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2019.

Chief Executive Officer Lasse Petterson commented, “The first quarter of 2019 was an exceptional quarter driven by strong project performance, resulting in net income from continuing operations of $20.5 million and an adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations of $43.8 million.”

During the quarter, we saw better than expected productivity on the Tampa Big Bend project which was completed ahead of schedule in the quarter and the San Jacinto project which we expect will be completed in the second quarter. We also had a contract modification to increase the scope of work on a project in Delaware that was not budgeted to contribute in 2019” added Petterson.

While the first quarter of 2019 was operationally very strong, our planned dry docking of certain vessels will start to have an impact on results starting in the second quarter and continuing into the third quarter,” said Petterson.

In addition to our restructuring plan completed in 2018, we have also made prudent improvements to our fleet and enhanced our project planning, preparation and execution which have resulted in better productivity of our vessels.” said Petterson. “As expected, the first quarter bid market was below the prior year with only $219 million awarded in the total market, but bidding is projected to increase significantly in the third and fourth quarters.

As expected, the domestic dredging bid market was slow in the first quarter of 2019 with a total of $219 million in projects awarded, of which GLDD was awarded $35.1 million.

The company reported its expectations to bid for additional phases of multiple large deepening and other capital projects in the second half of the year resulting in another strong domestic bid market in 2019.

The projects coming into the pipeline include additional phases of work in Charleston, Savannah, Corpus Christi and Mississippi as well as new projects in Virginia, Texas and Louisiana.

In addition to this anticipated capital work, GLDD is aiming to bid on multiple projects funded by the $17.4 billion supplemental hurricane funding.

Also, the deepening and coastal protection projects, several Liquefied Natural Gas petrochemical and crude oil projects are creating the need for port development in support of energy exports.

Click here for the full Q1 results.