Strong Energy Storage Growth

Energy storage activity grew during January to June this year for Wärtsilä, accounting for almost two-thirds of new-build order intake. The Finland-headquartered technology provider focused on global energy and marine markets, which have continued to be adversely affected by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The company reported its half-yearly financial results, noting that while it expects demand to rebound in many sectors in the latter part of 2021, various segments in the marine sector like cruises, ferries and cargo are still suffering from the COVID-19 slowdown. A pandemic-weakened investment environment in liquid and gas fuelled power plant markets persisted too, and although Wärtsilä said there has been a stabilisation of the market situation, customers’ investments continue to be postponed due mainly to the uncertainties that have been brought about by the global crisis. More generally, many of the markets the company operates in have experienced slow rollouts of vaccines, and this is impacting the speed of recovery. The order intake in Wärtsilä’s energy business included 1,325MWh of energy storage for the first six months of the year, and 519MWh in Q2 between April and June: compared to last year when it booked just 23MWh of energy storage orders for the half year and 18MWh in Q2, and 460MWh for the entirety of 2020, the growth indeed appears strong. Overall, the picture Wärtsilä reported was of strong cash flow throughout the six-month period, but COVID-19 continued to hamper business. The company made basic earnings per share of €0.10 (US$0.12) which was a Eurocent higher than for H1 2020, while comparable adjusted EBITDA was the same as for both periods at €128 million. Profit before taxes was €88 million for the first half of the year, and €53 million for the quarter ended in June. In 2020, those numbers had been €79 million and €36 million respectively