World News
Wärtsilä Q1 Robust Despite "Slow Marine Market"
Wärtsilä Corp. (Wärtsilä) Wednesday announced it made earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) of €100 million ($108 million) between January and March (Q1) 2015, despite a tough environment for its Ship Power business.
"As anticipated, the year 2015 started with a slow marine market," said Björn Rosengren, Wärtsilä's President and CEO.
"Low oil prices are causing a wait and see attitude among offshore customers that, combined with subdued vessel contracting, resulted in fewer orders being received within the Ship Power business."
The company said its Power Plants segment had remained robust, while sales at its Services business grew 11 percent, to bolster results.
EBIT of €100 million ($108 million) represents an operating margin of 10.1 percent and is up slightly on the same quarter of 2014, when Wärtsilä posted EBIT of €98 million, or 9.8 percent of sales.
Wärtsilä also reported that its net interest bearing debt had fallen dramatically since Q1 2014, from €390 million ($422 million) to €251 million ($272 million), while its gearing dropped from 0.22 percent to 0.14 percent.
Wärtsilä said its forecast of up to 10 percent sales growth and a target EBIT percentage of between 12 percent and 12.5 percent, before taking account of its acquisition of L-3 Marine Systems, is unchanged.
In March, the company announced it was teaming up with Clean Marine Energy to offer "scrubber finance" in a move designed to boost sales of marine exhaust cleaning technology at Wärtsilä Ship Power.
Key Bunker Prices More
| VLSFO | MGO | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $/mt | +/- | $/mt | +/- | |
| Singapore | 641.00 | 4.00 | 762.00 | 5.50 |
| Rotterdam | 599.00 | 1.00 | 751.00 | 0.50 |
| Houston | 629.50 | 2.00 | 802.50 | 6.50 |
| Fujairah | 647.50 | 2.00 | 883.50 | 5.50 |
| Global 20 Ports Average | 661.50 | 3.50 | 859.00 | 5.00 |
| Global 4 Ports Average | 629.50 | 1.00 | 799.50 | 1.50 |
| Global Average Bunker Price | 719.00 | 3.50 | 915.00 | 7.50 |
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