Today, Nexans announced that its sales for the third quarter of 2016 amounted to €1,404m (versus €1,520m for third-quarter 2015).
At constant metal prices, the sales figure came to €1,071m, representing an organic decrease of 3.3% year on year.
For the first nine months of 2016, sales came to €4,366m at current metal prices and €3,355m at constant metal prices, representing a 0.9% organic decrease.
The general trends seen in the third quarter of 2016 were as follows:
- Sales related to the Oil & Gas sector slowed during the summer and were down by 39% on an organic basis for the third quarter and -27% for the first nine months of 2016
- Project business (excluding umbilicals) shows positive developments with sales up 6.6% for the quarter. Sales were higher for land high-voltage projects and the decrease in invoicing for submarine projects was due to the anticipated unfavorable effect of project phasing before a sequence of strong double-digit growth in activity for 2017 secured in order backlog
- Telecommunications cables for private networks (LAN) and public networks (Operators) continued their positive first-half momentum
- After a good start to the year, general demand in Europe showed signs of weakening both for cables for the building sector and cables for energy operators
The group notched up a series of contract wins during the third quarter of 2016, including:
- A contract to supply inter-array and export cables for the world’s first 66kV offshore wind farm, located off the port of Blyth in Northumberland (UK)
- A contract to supply approximately 100km of umbilicals to BP Exploration (Delta) and its partner DEA (Deutsche Erdoel AG) for the next stage of their West Nile Delta project in Egypt
The group also pursued its innovation drive during the quarter, achieving a triple technology milestone in high-voltage direct current (HVDC) cable systems. Nexans’ unique technology portfolio of world-class cables meets the needs of HVDC links through cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) cables which are qualified for 320kV and have been successfully type tested at 525kV, mass impregnated cables with a paper-based insulation and ready for 600kV, and superconducting power cables.