Wärtsilä Corporation’s financial statement for the year ending December 2021 showed an increase in orders and sales over the previous year, and the group expects 2022 to continue the trend, though the prevailing market conditions make the outlook uncertain.
Håkan Agnevall (pictured), President and CEO, said: “In 2021, the Covid-19 pandemic continued to affect our end markets, our operations, and our financial performance. New virus variants reminded us that the pandemic is not yet over. However, we saw signs of stabilisation and recovery in both the marine and energy markets, and the order intake improved towards year-end.”
Agnevall continued: “In the marine markets, we saw mixed activity levels across different vessel segments. Vessel ordering activity overall improved, largely driven by containerships. At the same time, activity in our key vessel segments remained relatively low, particularly in the important cruise industry. The progress in Covid-19 vaccination programmes and the lifting of travel restrictions accelerated the reactivation of existing cruise and ferry fleets in the second half of the year. The active cruise fleet capacity increased from around 20% at the end of June to around 70% at the end of December, which supports our service business going forward. However, new Covid-19 variants pose a risk to recovery.”
The Marine Power and Energy businesses in particular improved their results. Voyage also performed better towards year-end, driven by strong seasonal effects in Q4. Marine Systems’ result continued to be burdened by low scrubber volumes. The company is leading the decarbonisation journey with a strong commitment to sustain R&D investments at around 3% of net sales, combined with partnerships for a broad solution offering. In 2021, adoption of sustainable fuels continued through launching a major test programme towards carbon-free solutions with hydrogen and ammonia. Marine Power upgraded the 20DF dual-fuel engine, which can now deliver more power with less energy consumption, and its methane slip is lowered by as much as 40%. Marine Systems launched the new IQ Series exhaust gas treatment system that allows the same exhaust gas cleaning results to be achieved with a smaller impact on a vessel’s cargo-carrying capacity, and therefore its profitability. Voyage initiated partnerships and projects globally to enable sustainable shipping. The digital systems such as Navi-Port and FOS optimise the vessel journey and enable just-in-time arrival for ships, saving fuel and reducing time at anchorage.
Going forward, the Wärtsilä strategy is focused on shaping decarbonisation of the industry, employing a strategy enabling acceleration of marine decarbonisation through the ‘Set for 30’ decarbonisation commitments. A continued R&D investment in sustainable fuel technologies positions Wärtsilä for the green transition. Growth in these areas will contribute to reaching profitability targets as well as the ‘Set for 30’ aim of becoming carbon-neutral in own operations by 2030 and providing a product portfolio that will be ready for zero-carbon fuels.
With regulatory frameworks and wider policy announcements accelerating the move to a low-carbon society, customers are increasingly asking for green shipping solutions, from which Wärtsilä believes it is well positioned to benefit.
Agnevall concluded: “Wärtsilä already today has solutions and technologies that enable the transition to decarbonised shipping and 100% renewable power systems.”
