Our operating performance | Maritime Design & Consultancy Market context This was another challenging year across many of our markets, with global COVID-19 restrictions and Brexit continuing to significantly impact the maritime sector. In response many of our customers redirected planned investment, but as the year progressed a trend around the phrase, ‘getting on with it’, emerged with decisions reflecting business sentiment. We have also seen global economic recovery driving spending decisions and putting pressure on governmental budgets. The Defence and Spending Review in the UK brought some welcome certainty, enabling customers to start committing expenditure. In Canada, the National Shipbuilding Strategy has remained strong and continues to present in-country opportunities. The energy market remained depressed as oil prices reached record lows – even achieving negative values. We did, however, continue to see growth in the offshore energy sector globally, with offshore wind projects being increasingly adopted across the world. The move towards net zero has continued to drive the development and adoption of alternative fuels and energysaving technologies within the industry. This was further accelerated by the introduction of tighter emission regulations by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in June 2021. Performance Despite a challenging year for the market, overall performance across our maritime design and consultancy services has remained strong. As the year progressed, we saw the downward trend reverse and there was increasing demand for vessel surveys and from commercial operators looking to refresh their fleets. This led to an above average year for our ship design team, with higher demand for consultancy as well as whole ship design. In the luxury yacht world, COVID-19 led owners to reconsider their needs rather than cancel contracts, meaning our design teams were kept busy responding to new preferences. Despite being one of the hardest hit sectors, the cruise and ferry market started to show signs of recovery as COVID-19 travel restrictions eased, with sales of our ship simulation and training packages resuming within this sector. From innovative ship designs and expert surveys to high-value vessel performance improvements, we help customers and their cargoes to arrive safely, effectively and on time. Strategy and organisation The start of 2021 saw a restructuring of our global business development and sales and marketing teams to enable us to benefit from a more joinedup and consistent approach to future business, as well as leveraging an intimate knowledge of customers, markets and local internal networks. The start of the year also saw us consolidating our offices in Asia to create a new maritime hub in Singapore. This will support existing customer expansion plans and better align technology as shipbuilding companies, ship owners, and operators look for a next-generation consulting partner. Our Canadian operations continued to grow with the establishment of a new engineering and design support role with a major shipyard in Canada, an opportunity which has significant growth potential. We opened a new office in Victoria, British Columbia, increased capacity in our Halifax, Nova Scotia office and started expansion renovations in our office in Ottawa, Ontario. BMT Group | Shaping our future 24
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