Fourth-quarter 2012 results for Marine Harvest, Oslo, Norway, showed a significant drop in earnings compared to 2011. But executives remain optimistic that a shift in the market that began at the end of the quarter will carry over into the rest of 2013 and beyond.
"I am very encouraged by the strong market outlook in Europe, with future prices above NOK 30 ($5.46, EUR 4.04) per kilogram for both 2013 and 2014," said CEO Alf-Helge Aarskog. "Marine Harvest is well positioned to take advantage of this as 80% of our volume will be originating in Europe combined with high exposure to spot prices."
While the price upturn began toward the end of December, it wasnt enough to rescue the quarter for the company, which showed an operational EBIT of NOK 64 million ($11.6 million, EUR 8.6 million), down from NOK 403 million ($73.3 million, EUR 54.3 million) a year earlier. Seasonal working capital build up in the fourth quarter led to increased negative cash flow from operations of NOK -169 million ($-30.8 million, EUR -22.8 million), compared to NOK -108 million ($-19.7 million, EUR -15.5 million) in 2011.
"Although the market for Atlantic salmon in Europe experienced a momentous positive turn from December, the result in the fourth quarter was impacted by a low price realization, Aarskog said. In the Americas, the market situation is still concerning and Chilean costs continued to increase," Aarskog said. "The Canadian business is starting to see cost benefits from the restructuring measures carried out. Whilst measurable operational improvements were observed in Scotland during the quarter, the results remained negatively impacted by biological events during the previous quarters."
