Marine Harvest on Thursday announced its third-quarter results, including a 39 percent drop in its operating income, to NOK 457 million.
The farmed salmon giant said it is preparing for a “challenging market” in the coming quarters.
“We expect a continued strong increase in global supply for the rest of 2011 and in 2012. A strong contract portfolio will reduce the impact of low spot prices also in the fourth quarter. While the demand stimulus from low prices can have a positive impact on spot prices the coming quarters, we must be prepared for a challenging market also in 2012,” said Marine Harvest CEO Alf-Helge Aarskog. “We will reduce smolt stocking in 2011 and 2012 by 11.3 million smolt in total, reduce planned cape in 2012 by NOK 600 million to approximately 400 million and have initiated a group wide cost-program to preserve our financial strength. We remain committed to exploit consolidation opportunities that may arise as a result of the challenging market conditions.”
The company’s third-quarter operating revenue and other income was up slightly to NOK 3.64 billion, compared to NOK 3.63 billion last year. However, third-quarter net earnings plummeted to NOK 18 million, down from NOK 670 million last year.
Marine Harvest Norway achieved an operational EBIT per kilogram of NOK 5.92 in the third quarter, compared to NOK 13.52 in 2010, while Marine Harvest Chile managed an operational EBIT per kilogram of NOK 5.79, compared to NOK 18.01 last year.
Production totaled 83,076 metric tons in the third quarter of 2011, up from 64,034 metric tons last year. The company said it expects to harvest 338,000 metric tons of farmed salmon in 2011, of which 99,000 metric tons is expected to be harvested in the fourth quarter.
Click here to read about global farmed salmon production in the third quarter of 2011.
