Finnlines Group’s revenue for Q1’19 was EUR 137.6 million, up 2.0% Y-o-Y
Emanuele Grimaldi, President and CEO of Finnlines Group, commented in conjunction with the Finnlines Group’s Financial Review:
“The Finnlines Group’s revenue for January–March 2019 was EUR 137.6 million, which was an increase of 2.0 per cent compared to the same period last year. The result for the reporting period was EUR 16.2 million compared to EUR 16.5 million in January–March 2018. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation, EBITDA, was EUR 34.2 million compared to EUR 34.3 million in January–March 2018. This result can be considered to be very good taken into account the fact that the growth of Finnish exports and imports has slowed down compared to the previous year.
About 90 per cent of foreign trade is transported by sea globally and shipping is of high importance to the Finnish industry and welfare. In 2018, sea transport volumes rose to an all-time high – Finnish sea transport increased to a record level and was 103.8 million tonnes. Thus, maritime transport is vital to Finland’s foreign trade and, in particular, requires modern, frequent and regular liner traffic services, which Finnlines offers to its customers. Finnlines operates in the Baltic Sea, the North Sea and the Bay of Biscay.
Finnlines is committed to the IMO’s (International Maritime Organization) GHG strategy. The goal is to reduce CO2 emissions by at least 50 per cent by 2050 compared to 2008. We have ordered three modern, green ro-ro vessels to add up further 17,500 lane metres to our services. Further resources will be invested in a new series of modern large green ro-pax vessels to be delivered within a time span of three to four years. These vessels will be our Superstar ro-pax vessels which will carry around 1,100 passengers and they will also meet the highest technical and environmental standards.
Through these investments, which total around EUR 500 million, Finnlines continues to deploy larger and larger vessels in both the ro-pax and ro-ro segments, creating better economies of scale. We have already improved the utilisation of our existing fleet and this way we continue our efforts on further improving our operational and environmental efficiency. These major investments will further contribute to reducing fuel consumption as well as CO2 and other emissions.
We continue to focus on our customers and sustainability. With our rejuvenated vessels we can keep our reliability and efficiency on a high level. Automatisation, digitalisation, and the development of emission-reduction technology will push our industry towards a low carbon future. Furthermore, our EUR 500 million investments in new technology, digitalisation, and green shipping prove that we are dedicated to be the forerunner of that development. Reducing fuel consumption and emissions means we remain both competitive and firm in our commitment to contribute to cleaner shipping. We are also on track to deliver a very good result again in 2019, and to achieve our strategic goals – both financial and environmental.”
Finnlines is a leading shipping operator of ro-ro and passenger services in the Baltic Sea, the North Sea and the Bay of Biscay. The Company is a part of the Grimaldi Group, one of the world’s largest operators of ro-ro vessels and the largest operator of the Motorways of the Sea in Europe for both passengers and freight. This affiliation enables Finnlines to offer liner services to and from any destination in the Mediterranean, West Africa as well as the Atlantic coast of both North and South America.
