Dutch offshore engineering contractor Boskalis posted “historically good” third-quarter results, with strong performance across all its divisions, high vessel utilisation and solid project results.
Several new projects were secured during the past quarter, including the large Baltica 2 offshore wind cable project and the A2 infra project between Het Vonderen and Kerensheide in Limburg, the Netherlands. The orderbook stood at EUR6 billion (USD6.4 billion) as per the end of September.
Peter Berdowski, Boskalis ceo, said: “With the high utilisation of our fleet and good project results, we are looking back at the best third quarter in our history. At dredging, major projects in Asia, the Middle East and our home markets in Europe made a significant contribution.
“We saw the biggest increase at offshore energy. Our strategy focusing on both the traditional energy market and the offshore wind market is paying off. Our vessels at heavy marine transport, subsea services, marine services and survey have been extremely busy.”
The company’s salvage division also performed well with a number of high-profile assignments and Berdowski added: “All in all, we are on track to conclude one of our best years ever.”
At the beginning of the third quarter the crane vessel Bokalift 1 successfully installed the last of 62 jackets for the Changfang & Xidao offshore wind farm in Taiwan, where Boskalis was also involved in the construction of the Yunlin wind farm.
In the USA, Boskalis was active on the Southfork offshore wind project, where the Bokalift 2 crane vessel installed all the monopile foundations and a substation in one quarter. Preparations for the next US wind farm, Revolution, are now under way.
In Scotland, Boskalis is currently working on the construction of part of the Moray West offshore wind farm. For Boskalis, this project involves conducting geophysical surveys, transporting the foundations (monopiles), preparing the seabed and installing the foundations.
In terms of decommissioning, it was a busy third quarter too. Subsea services took on a sizable contract earlier this year to decommission old subsea infrastructure in the North Sea resulting in a busy quarter with the deployment of diving support vessels. In the Caribbean, meanwhile, Bokalift 1 was involved in salvaging part of a platform from the seabed.
Given the results for the first nine months of the year and the projects in progress, Boskalis said that 2023 is expected to be one of the best years in its history financially, with an EBITDA of more than EUR800 million (USD853.5 million). This will significantly exceed last year’s result. Based on market developments and the well-filled order book, Boskalis is also positive about the period thereafter.
