Thyssenkrupp Nucera posts 46% electrolyser sales boost on the back of Neom green hydrogen project construction
The German firm has already delivered 800MW of equipment to giant renewable H2 and ammonia complex, but warns of shrinking orders
German electrolyser manufacturer Thyssenkrupp Nucera has seen a boost in sales over the past nine months to €349m ($381m), compared to just €240m for the same period the year before, the company said today (Tuesday).
Much of this is due to the delivery of equipment to the giant Neom green hydrogen and ammonia complex in Saudi Arabia, for which Thyssenkrupp Nucera had secured a 2.2GW order back in 2021.
The German company confirmed in its Q3 results that more than 800MW of its alkaline electrolysers have already been delivered, with half of this capacity installed on-site.
Thyssenkrupp Nucera’s other flagship customer, H2 Green Steel, also delivered an extra boost to orders.
The green steel start-up initially booked 700MW of electrolyser capacity for its plant in Boden, Sweden, Thyssenkrupp Nucera confirmed that it has now increased this order to the full 1GW, worth an extra €200m, as of May 2024.
The company continues to expect €500m-550m in sales of the green hydrogen equipment for its current financial year (which begins in September), as it posted €132m in sales for the third quarter.
However, the German electrolyser firm repeated its warning to the market from last month that it would be unlikely to see substantial growth in its order backlog in the near future, as uncertainty around regulations on what counts as “green” hydrogen — particularly in the US — has kept developers from taking final investment decisions on their projects.
While its overall pipeline of sales prospects has grown from around 64GW at the end of February to more than 88GW, worth at least €41bn, Thyssenkrupp Nucera’s “actively pursued projects” comes to more than 22GW worth at least €10bn as of May 2024 — compared to more than 19GW worth above €9bn as of February.
As of the end of June, the company’s order backlog for electrolysers stood at €0.9bn, compared to €1bn for the year before.
The publicly listed company’s earnings before interest and tax (Ebit), a measure of profitability, also fell to €0.7m for the third quarter compared to €7m the year before.
Meanwhile, for the past nine months, Thyssenkrupp is registering Ebit as a loss of €10.8m, compared to a positive Ebit of €20.3m for the same period last year—in line with Thyssenkrupp Nucera’s expectations that it will see a negative Ebit in the mid-double-digits for its 2023/2024 financial year.
The German firm attributes this sharp fall to increased spend on research and development costs as well as the lower margins on alkaline electrolysers compared to its chlor-alkali business.
Thyssenkrupp Nucera announced earlier this year that it was working with research institute Fraunhofer IKTS to develop high-temperature solid-oxide electrolysers as a second technology offering.
However, for Q3, it also saw a net income after interest and taxes of €5.8m, comparable to €6.1m in net income for the same quarter the previous year.
Source: Hydrogeninsight