French classification society Bureau Veritas has reported 8% revenue growth in its marine and offshore business the first half of this year.
Newbuilding and non-core classification services performed well as revenue hit €204.5m ($207m) in the six month period, compared to €189.2m last year.
Operating profitability was also up from €44.4m to €50.1m over the same period.
BV said it had single-digit organic revenue growth in its newbuilding activities, which account for 40% of its total revenue. New orders in the first half of the year reached 4.8m gt.
Inspection services also grew and, at the end of June, BV’s classified fleet reached 11,533 ships, representing 140.1m gt.
BV scored high single-digit growth in its marine services business. BV said the growth was “driven by energy efficiency consulting services resulting from the recent increase in energy prices”.
BV said it would focus the development of its marine and offshore business on digitalisation and high added-value services.
As an example in the second quarter, the BV introduced the use of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) model for corrosion detection, which will be deployed for augmented surveys in the second half of the year.
BV said its business had not been badly affected by the ongoing Ukraine crisis.
Marine and offshore are just a part of the giant BV business portfolio. The company as a whole recorded a 11.4% increase in revenue to €2.6bn and an 8.7% increase in operating profit to €401m.
