Posted on November 14, 2017
By Neha Bhatia, ConstructionWeekOnline.com
The UAE’s National Marine Dredging Company (NMDC) posted an increase in its nine-month (9M) revenues for 2017, which amounted to $272.2m (AED1bn).
NMDC’s 9M 2017 revenue amount is a 3% hike over corresponding figures for 2016, which were valued at $265m (AED973.4m).
Investments in property, plant, and equipment for 9M 2017 amounted to $51.4m (AED189m), and NMDC said the majority of this figure “relates to milestone payments for [a] hopper dredger that is under construction”.
NMDC’s new hopper dredger, Arzana, was launched on 20 September, 2017, at a shipyard in the Netherlands’ Kinderdijk village, and “is on schedule for delivery in Q1 2018”, the company confirmed.
9M gross profit values for the marine contractor grew by 43%, to $27m (AED99.3m) in 2017, from $19m (AED69.5m) in 2016.
An “ongoing focus on cost control and efficiency”, led to the improvement in gross profits, NMDC said.
However, the firm recorded a reduction in its net profit for 9M 2017, which amounted to $6.7m (AED24.5m), a 39% decline compared to 9M 2016’s net profit, worth $11m (AED40.1m).
According to a missive issued to the Abu Dhabi bourse, NMDC’s drop in net profit is “fully explained by the release of certain provisions in the prior year”.
The contractor added that it had “shown resilience to the continuous challenges in the market” over the last nine months.
This year, the company continued its work on projects such as the expansion of Khalifa Port in the UAE, as well as “a large land reclamation project in Bahrain”.
Additionally, the marine contractor revealed the progress recorded on its projects outside the Middle East: “Work started on the construction of marine infrastructure for India’s first floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Gujarat.
“Furthermore, NMDC started operations for […] land reclamation and construction works on three islands [of] The Lagoons in the Maldives.”
NMDC announced it was reviewing the optimal fleet size and composition for its operations, and had “identified a number of assets that will be decommissioned in the current financial year”.
Source: ConstructionWeekOnline.com
