Vestdavit has achieved a new sales record for the third successive year as its order intake hit an all-time high of Nkr380m in 2024, fueled by increased davit orders from its core naval market as well as the offshore energy sector.
“It has been another fantastic year. The significant orders boost was achieved despite a transition in our Sales & Marketing department that saw us start the year with an almost entirely new sales team, which hit the ground running to deliver impressive growth through quickly developing good customer relations,” says Vestdavit’s Sales and Business Development Director Tarjei Isaksen.
The company’s davit sales grew by around 17% versus the previous year while the volume of orders also rose to 108-plus units, an increase of more than 50% from 70 in 2023. The naval market accounted for about 80% of orders in terms of value, with the remainder coming mainly from offshore energy - both oil & gas, and wind.
Furthermore, the leading Norwegian supplier of boat-handling systems also racked up some of its biggest-ever orders in terms of value with contracts in the range of Nkr40-60m. These include frame agreements for multiple davits with the Canadian Coast Guard and French Navy, as well as significant orders with the US, German and Italian navies, and the US’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
“Increasing sales momentum in our main markets has led to exponential growth in recent years to underpin the expansion of our fabrication facility in Poland that enables faster turnaround on orders to boost productivity and meet growing demand,” Isaksen explains.
The Bergen-based supplier has recently expanded the Vestdavit Production plant with a new assembly hall to increase manufacturing capacity by 60-70%, which will facilitate delivery of around 100 davits annually and allow construction of larger units.
Isaken says davit sales growth is mainly being driven by increasing newbuild investments by Nato navies around the world to strengthen their fleets amid escalating geopolitical tensions. “This has led to rolling orders for long-term newbuilding programmes,” he adds, with the US Navy a major customer.
Based on a market study, the company is now looking to expand further into the Asia-Pacific naval market where it sees “huge potential”, as well as in Latin America, according to Isaksen.
Vestdavit has established a strong reputation as a specialist supplier of bespoke boat-handling systems to most Nato navies based on its 50-year track record of delivering robust and reliable davits designed for efficient launch-and-recovery operations in variable sea states for mission-critical operations.
Its high-specification davits are installed on both naval and coastguard ships ranging from aircraft carriers to offshore patrol vessels to deploy various craft for military, law enforcement and other tasks, with a reference list that includes the US, British, Italian and Australian navies, to name a few.
These are designed to meet the special requirements of military vessels for boat-handling systems that are lightweight, compact and resilient, with a high level of redundancy so they can remain operational under challenging conditions. Innovative technological features - such as active heave compensation, anti-pendulation mechanisms and flexible hook distance - also enable enhanced boat-handling capabilities and increased adaptability.
On the commercial side, Vestdavit has seen increasing deliveries to the offshore wind segment due to demand for heavy-duty davits to handle large workboats used for deployment of turbine maintenance crews, mainly on construction service operation vessels (CSOVs).
Isaksen expects this trend to continue given the pace of wind farm development worldwide to drive the transition to green energy, with annual installations forecast to increase to 66 GW by 2033 from 10.8 GW in 2023 despite recent investment challenges such as inflation, high interest rates and supply chain constraints that have stalled some projects, according to the Global Wind Energy Council.
Against this market backdrop, Isaksen is confident that Vestdavit can exceed the Nkr400m mark to achieve a new sales record this year, with further high-value davit orders on the horizon.
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