Marine Harvest records best ever Q3

MARINE Harvest today announced its ‘best ever’ third quarter results, with an EBIT of 207 million euros, up from €194 million in the corresponding quarter last year. Revenues soared to just short of a billion euros.
However, in Scotland harvest volumes declined by 20 per cent compared to last year, down from 10,912 tonnes to 9,024 tonnes, and biological costs increased by 20 per cent.
Incident based mortality losses amounted to €1.2 million (€2.1 million in 2017), mainly due to gill issues and mortality at the Inchmore hatchery, said Marine Harvest in its Q3 report.
Sea lice levels at the end of the quarter were lower than at the end of the comparable quarter of 2017.
Production in Scotland has been higher than in the third quarter of 2017 as a result of improved growth and less mortality.
Marine Harvest Group reported record high Q3 operational revenues of €990 million (€868 million in 2017) in the third quarter.
Total harvest volume was 109,896 tonnes in the quarter (95,338 in 2017). Harvest guidance for 2018 remains unchanged at 380,000 tonnes. Estimated harvest volume for 2019 is 430,000 tonnes.
In Norway, lice is still a challenge for the farming operations, particularly in combination with fish being weakened by other biological challenges.
Sea lice levels at the end of the third quarter of 2018 were higher than in the comparable quarter for both Region Mid and Region North.
Although sea lice mitigation costs are still at a high level, for the third quarter in a row, health costs are lower than in the comparable quarter, said the company.
Salmon of Norwegian origin achieved an operational EBIT per kilo of €2.25 (€2.24 in 2017) in the third quarter, while salmon of Scottish and Canadian origin reported operational EBIT per kilo of €1.36 and €1.05 respectively (€2.33 and €1.73).
Salmon of Chilean origin reported operational EBIT per kilo of € 1.28 in the quarter (€1.30).
MH Feed reported an operational EBIT of €7.3 million (€9.4 million) and the company saw an all-time high production volume for feed at 97,564 tonnes. Its new feed plat in Scotland is due to open in 2019.
MH Consumer Products reported an operational EBIT of €16.0 million (€14.6 million).
CEO Alf-Helge Aarskog said: ‘This has been a very good quarter for Marine Harvest. We managed to generate a record high operational result for the third quarter as demand for salmon continues to increase the value of our products.
‘Marine Harvest Feed produced record high volumes in the third quarter. I am very pleased that the growth continues with the opening of the new feed factory in Scotland in 2019.
\’It is also very encouraging to see the growth and margin achievements in our value added production in the US and Asia.’
Earlier this week, Aarskog criticised the Norwegian retail sector, where the three main grocery chains were offering to pay more or less the same for salmon – and that is why the company had not been selling to them for the past four years.
He told the Norwegian seafood website ilaks.no that there was no reason why Marine Harvest should sell at the prices procurement managers at these chains were demanding, adding it was much more exciting to shop at French stores, such as Carrefour, where there was wider price variation.
Picture: Marine Harvest CEO Alf-Helge Aarskog