The shipbuilding company Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) has recorded an unprecedented order backlog for the first half of 2024/2025.
New orders increased significantly year-on-year, primarily due to orders for submarines. In the long term, Thyssenkrupp plans to spin off the marine segment.
Due to significant orders in all segments – submarine, surface and electronics – order intake at TKMS rose to €5.591 billion in the first half of the year. In the same period of the previous year, this figure amounted to €669 million.
The largest factor behind this growth is an order extension from the German armed forces, which ordered four more submarines from the 212CD program from the shipyard in Kiel. In addition, the Surface Water division was awarded the contract by the Alfred Wegener Institute for the research icebreaker “Polarstern”. These orders increased the order backlog to a record level of €16.1 billion at the end of the first half of the year. TKMS ended the last financial year with an order book of €11.7 billion. Singapore also recently ordered two more 218SG submarines.
TKMS is positioning itself as a “maritime powerhouse”
“We have achieved great success in the first half of the year and have a record order backlog of over € 6 billion,” said CEO Oliver Burkhard. “Both the order expansion as part of the 212CD program and our order for the new ‘Polarstern’ underline our position as a maritime powerhouse – as a system provider for the maritime defense industry. The recent signing of the contract for the follow-up order of two submarines for Singapore contributes to the fact that our order book has now even risen to around €18 billion.”
This development gives the company the necessary “tailwind” to realize the planned independence. The aim is to make the best possible use of growth opportunities in the market. The spin-off is to be completed before the end of this calendar year.
TKMS was also able to increase sales from € 965 million to € 1.101 billion as a result of the new business. Adjusted EBIT grew from € 42 million to € 62 million. The adjusted EBIT margin improved to 5.6% in the first six months (same period of the previous year: 4.4%). The improved profitability was primarily due to project progress in the newbuilding business and a positive development in the marine electronics sector, TKMS announced.
“With our order backlog, we have long-term visibility and planning capability and are ideally positioned to significantly increase our sales in the future,” said CFO Paul Glaser. “At the same time, we have structurally and sustainably improved our profitability in recent years. We were able to demonstrate this once again in the first half of the current financial year. We are continuing to do our homework and firmly expect to continue the positive trend and further increase our profit margin.”
