A buoyant mineral analysis market has helped French testing and inspection services group Bureau Veritas post stronger 2022 first-half revenue and profits.
The company said total revenue grew 11.4% year-on-year to €2.69 billion. Net profit was up 14.4% yoy to €225.2 million.
Bureau Veritas’ Agri-Food & Commodities business, one of six core divisions that accounts for about 20% of its sales, generated €588 million of H1 revenue, up 13.6% yoy.
“The growth was led by continued buoyant market conditions in metals and minerals – up 15.2% organically – as well as improving trends in the oil and petrochemicals segment,” the company said.
Metals and minerals, 33% (€196m) of divisional revenue, saw strong growth across “most geographies, led by the group’s key hubs, Australia, Canada and Latin America”.
“It benefited from a sustained high level of exploration drilling activity across all the major commodities, with gold, copper, coal and iron ore leading the way, a growing backlog of samples and the continuing success of the group’s on-site laboratories strategy with several important wins in the period.”
These included new contracts with copper mines in Chile and Peru, an iron ore mine in Chile and a gold mine in Australia.
“Trade activities recorded double-digit organic revenue growth. It was fuelled by the main metals, with strong trade volumes for copper, iron ore and coal across all geographies. Copper demand remained strong, notably driven by electrification trends in several economies, while coal was in high demand as an energy source,” Bureau Veritas said.
