Aker Yards profits dive

Second-quarter profits at Aker Yards AS, Europe’s biggest shipbuilder, plunged 78% as the company completed fewer cruise ships and vessels to serve the offshore oil and natural-gas industry. Net income fell to $15 million from $40.7 million a year earlier, the Oslo-based company said in a statement to the Oslo exchange. Sales fell 23% to $477 million.

Operating revenues in the second quarter of 2004 were lower mainly due to reduced activity in the market segment ?cruise & ferries?. Sales at the cruise and ferries unit slid 43% to $171 million while revenue at the offshore vessel unit slid by more than a third to $123 million in the quarter, the company said. Its merchant vessel unit, which constructs container ships, had sales of $122 million, down from $129 million from a year earlier.

Aker Yards has said earnings will fall this year and reiterated a forecast that sales this year will drop $1.6 and $1.7 billion from $2.3 billion in 2003.