Industrial and oilfield rentals fuel CERF results
10 December 2014
Canadian equipment rental and waste management company CERF has reported increased revenues and net income for the nine months to 30 September, fuelled by its industrial and oilfield rentals divisions.
Overall revenues grew to CA$37.4 million (€26.4 million), up from CA$34.2 million (€24.1 million) for the same nine months in 2013. Net income reached CA$3.04 million (€2.14 million), up from CA$2.13 million (€1.50 million) a year ago.
The company’s industrial rentals division – the largest division by revenues – reported an 18% year-on-year increase in revenues to CA$16.9 million (€11.9 million), while the oilfields rentals division saw revenues rise 56% to CA$9.75 million (€6.87 million).
However, the waste management division reported nine-month revenues of CA$10.8 million (€7.6 million), compared to CA$13.7 million (€9.66 million) in 2013.
The company said the seasonal nature of the waste management industry was opposite to the seasonality of industrial rentals and oilfield rentals.
It said the industrial rentals division rented equipment in all seasons, but generally saw an increase in rental revenues in the fourth quarter and the first quarter, when the construction industry demands the same equipment as in the summer as well as heaters, lighting units and other specialised cold weather equipment in order to keep working through the colder months of the year.
It said its oilfield rentals division, meanwhile, operated in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin, where the activity levels in the oilfield services industry were subject to the ability to move heavy equipment in the oil and natural gas fields.
It said this mobility was dependent on weather conditions, while many exploration and production areas in Northern Canada were accessible only in the winter months when the ground is frozen hard enough to support heavy equipment.
And whereas cold weather boosts activity in the rental segments, it is the warmer weather of the second and third quarter that is most advantageous to waste management, according to the company.
