GL Reports Strong Year

Clear two-digit growth in gross performance, turnover and earnings as well as a doubling of the ship deliveries and above-average growth in the attendance to the fleet in service characterized the successful business year 2000 for Germanischer Lloyd. "We have therefore more than compensated for the cyclical downturn of the previous year, and were also able to improve our market position on the whole," the Executive Board Members Consul Rainer Schöndube and Dr. Hans G. Payer said. The Executive Board of the globally active classification society expects that the year 2001 will also end on a high level.

The positive development was promoted by a considerable improvement in the general market situation. The world order level for seagoing newbuildings grew appreciably in the year 2000, reaching the highest figure since 1976. In the period from January to September alone, 1,328 newbuilding orders for over 36.2 million GT were placed worldwide. Such a strong demand was last only seen during the tanker boom at the beginning of the 1970s. With this business environment, Germanischer Lloyd was able to boost its consolidated turnover by 29 percent to Euro 183m (DM 357.9m) and the gross performance by 28 percent to Euro 184.55m (DM 360.95m). 78 percent of this turnover was generated by the core business of ship classification and 22 percent by the non-maritime sector (offshore, industry and certification).

Despite the expansion in activities, consistent cost-cutting together with a decline in the number of staff and further increases in efficiency were effective in limiting the rise in expenses. The positive consolidated result before taxes on earnings thus improved in relation to the previous year by Euro 13.9m (DM 27.19m) to Euro 13.4m (DM 26.21m). After taxes on income, allowing for shares of other partners and the loss brought forward from the previous year, a consolidated profit of Euro 2.09m (DM 4.09m) was achieved for the financial year. Thanks to the investment activities of the shipowners, GL was able to achieve a new historic record for ship newbuilding classification, with an order intake of 357 ships and 5.7 million GT. In total, 329 seagoing ships with 4.0 million GT were delivered with GL class by the shipyards. This represents a doubling of the deliveries in relation to 1999 with 1.9 million GT. The number of seagoing newbuildings awaiting classification at the end of 2000 totaled 395 units with 6.4 million GT, i.e. a growth of over 30 percent in tonnage in comparison to the year before. Of these ships, some 63 percent are being built in Asia and 35 percent in Europe. By the end of April 2001, the order book had swelled further to 8.3 million GT. In ship newbuilding classification, GL is currently holding a world market share of over 13 percent (year-end 1999: 11 percent) and is continuing to dominate the strategically important sector of containerships with a market share of 50 percent.

By the end of 2000, the fleet in service and classed with Germanischer Lloyd had grown to 5,051 (previous year: 4,902) seagoing ships with 33.2 (previous year: 30.0) million GT, indicating a growth in volume of 10.8 percent.