Economy Energy group Vattenfall significantly increases profits
Despite continuing falls in electricity prices, Swedish energy giant Vattenfall generated significantly higher profits in the first half of 2024.
19.07.2024, 12:42
19.07.2024, 12:43
SDA
The bottom line for the first half of the year was a plus of around 26.2 billion Swedish kronor after 6.9 billion kronor in the same period last year, as the company announced in Stockholm. At the same time, net sales fell by 19 percent to 128.5 billion kronor.
Vattenfall CEO Anna Borg spoke of a positive development and a satisfactory result. Electricity prices continued to fall in Vattenfall's markets, but price hedging in the Nordic region enabled the company to achieve higher prices despite declining market trends. The sale of the Berlin district heating network, which was completed at the beginning of May, also had an impact on the result. The state of Berlin had bought the network back from Vattenfall for 1.4 billion euros.
According to Borg, the increase in profit can also be explained by one-off effects, which were primarily related to the sale of 49 percent of the planned German offshore wind farms Nordlicht I and II to the chemical group BASF and the Norfolk wind farm in the UK.
The Nordlicht offshore project is to be built in the North Sea, around 85 kilometers north of the island of Borkum. According to Vattenfall, the annual electricity production will be equivalent to the consumption of an estimated 1.6 million German households. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2026, with completion planned for 2028. BASF intends to use the electricity produced there to supply its own production sites in Europe, particularly at its headquarters in Ludwigshafen.
