Vard Q1 profit down 52%, orderbook hits five year high

Revenue remained stable between the two quarters at around NOK2.7bn, with the bottom line affected by salaries and other expenses increasing 13.8% and 11.1% to NOK552m and NOK150m respectively.

The bumper intake of NOK5.5bn in ship orders in Q1 brought the group's orderbook to 45 vessels, 27 of which are Vard's own designs. The orders included the largest single vessel order for Vard, an offshore subsea construction vessel (OSCV) for Solstad.

The company does consider the Q1 order intake to be exceptional, though it expects 2014 order activity to be strong.

Vard expects the balancing of orders across the group to improve as time goes on, with productivity increasing at its under-utilised Vietnam yard and Niterói recovering from overload.

According to Vard, performance of Neterói and its second Brazilian yard Promar, which is currently in the final stages of construction, will be key to its performance through to the medium term. Promar's gantry crane is expected to be installed in July 2014.