Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the GTT third quarter 2021 activity update. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star and one on your telephone. If you require any further assistance, please press star zero. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Philippe Berterottière, GTT CEO. Please go ahead.
Hello. Good evening, everybody. I'm very pleased to be with you for our third quarter 2021 activity update. I am with Virginie Aubagnac, our group CFO, for presenting you this update. First of all, let's start with the third quarter key highlights. On the first nine months of 2021, we achieved a revenue of EUR 240 million, which is 21% less compared to what we achieved at the same time in 2020, and 20% more than what we achieved at the same time in 2019. On our core business, we had a strong order intake with 26 LNG carriers in the third quarter. Since the beginning of the year, we obtained 40 LNG carriers, two VLECs, six onshore storage, with delivery dates spreading mainly over the 2023-2025 period. LNG as a fuel is picking up.
In the third quarter, we obtained tanks for eight container ships, and since the beginning of the year, it's 25 container ships. Innovation, we've been very active with two new authorizations in principle: ballast water free for bunker ship in July, and LNG-fueled Aframax vessel developed with Deltamarin in September. For smart shipping, we introduced a new solution, the launch of LNG Optim to help LNG operators to optimize their environmental performance. That's our basic purpose: to offer optimized systems which are generating the best environmental performances. We co-opted two directors, Florence Fouquet, representing ENGIE, who is replacing Cécile Prévieu for the remainder of her term of office, and we co-opted also Catherine Ronge as an independent director, replacing Michèle Azalbert. As I was saying, we have a quite strong order book as of the end of September 2021.
In LNG carriers, we obtained 40 orders since the beginning of the year. We delivered 44 ships at the same time, and if we look at the LNG as a fuel, we obtained 25 orders, and we delivered seven ships, so I could go into more details, but what we can say, it's a very dynamic order book with deliveries, a lot of deliveries, and a lot of new orders. It's quite lively. LNG and supply demand, well, quite obviously, new capacities are required. We can see that on this chart with the horizon of 2040. It's the sense of the decision taken by Qatar, but we can see that also through the numerous contracts passed by off-takers for contracts, for SPA, for American projects not yet decided.
And the more it goes, the more it becomes likely that these projects are going to be decided, adding additional capacities and adding additional need for LNG carriers. Keeping on looking at the dynamics of the market, we can look at Asia, Northeast Asia, with China leading the LNG demand growth in 2021. With for this year, as it was the case for the past years, double-digit percentage growth, 19%. It's very impressive. China has overtaken Japan as the largest importer of LNG in the world. We have also quite impressive growth in Korea with 9% growth, and in India with 4%. So a very active market in Asia. Talking about prices, we can see that current spot LNG prices are calling for more LNG production facilities. Prices are around $40 per MMBtu.
You can see the volatility of these prices, and that just underlines the tightness of the LNG offer, and in our opinion, that could lead to new decisions, but also to a certain switch to long-term contracts. When we look at LNG carriers and at the spot market there, the spot charter rates, we see that they are also soaring, underlining the lack of LNG carriers. We can see that for very short-term spot charter rates, which are very high with discrepancies according to the region, but we can see that also for the one year charter rates, which are quite high, and with also, quite interestingly, a very important spread between the most modern vessels with X-DF or DFDE engine or ME-GI engine, and the old steam turbine vessels, which is underlining the requirement for more environmentally friendly ships.
I think that is a very important learning because it shows that the market really prefers the most modern ships with very high environmental performances. And that's what we offer once more. We are really committed to that. Thanks to our latest technology, we can very significantly reduce the environmental footprint of LNG carriers. Looking at the long-term contract for LNG, we can see that in spite of the current context for gas, they remain quite affordable. If you take a long-term perspective, you see that LNG is significantly more affordable than what it was 10 years ago. That is largely due to the competition between liquefaction projects. You know that very often they are indexed on the oil prices, so you can see the influence of the oil prices on these curves.
Also, the index, the percentage according to which they are indexed, is decreasing due to the competition. So the more it goes, the more LNG is becoming affordable and attractive for off-takers. In 2021, LNG as a fuel container ship business has picked up quite strongly. Business for container ship has been very significant for the last nine months, and very significantly, about 20% of them have selected LNG as a fuel. You saw the importance of the orders we obtained, and so we are on the verge of achieving a long-term goal, which is GTT membrane technology becoming a solution of reference for LNG as a fuel on ocean-going vessels. We announced a couple of days ago a new significant contract for Elogen, which has been selected by Storengy to equip a storage project storing hydrogen.
There, Elogen will supply a one MW PEM electrolyzer, which will allow a production of 400 kilos of green hydrogen per day. So it's another significant contract obtained by Elogen after the contract we obtained earlier this year with E.ON. We obtained also some other contracts which are less important, and we did not communicate on them, but we are quite pleased by the flow of orders we are receiving since the beginning of this year, and also by the quality of all our customers, which translates, which produces, in fact, a high degree of confidence in the Elogen offering in terms of performance, in terms of industrial credibility, and in terms of capacity to support the product and the customer. Now, I will hand over to Virginie for continuing on the nine-month results.
Thank you, Philippe. Good evening, everyone. First, I'd like to remind you that 2021 figures compared with 2020, which was a peak year, benefiting from a very strong order intake in 2018 and 2019. Consolidated revenue for the first nine months are in line with our expectations, amounting to EUR 240 million, a decrease of 21% compared to 2020, but an increase of 20% compared to the same period in 2019. EUR 224 million came from new-build royalties, mainly LNGCs, but also from other membrane applications on VLECs, FSU, FSRU, onshore storage, GBS, and all those products. Revenue of LNG as a fuel is down 14% over the first nine months, but we expect an increase in revenue in the future thanks to those 25 orders we get since the beginning of the year.
Elogen's revenue amounts to EUR 3.3 million with an order intake of EUR 6.2 million over the period, and we confirmed the guidance of EUR 6 million in sales by the end of the year. On the service side, all revenues are growing: maintenance and assistance, supplier certification, pre-engineering studies, and training activities, showing the attractiveness of our offers on service side. I now leave the floor to Philippe to conclude this presentation.
Thank you very much, Virginie. As far as our guidance is concerned, we are confirming that our revenues should be in the range of €285-€315 million. We are confirming that our EBITDA should be in the range of €150-€170 million, and we are confirming that we will pay a dividend of at least 80% for the 2021 exercise. Now, we are going to be very pleased, Virginie and I, to answer your questions.
Thank you. As a reminder, you will need to press the star and one on your telephone to ask a question. To cancel your question, please press the hash key. Once again, it is star and one on your telephone to ask a question. We will now take our first question from the line of Kevin Roger at Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead, and then it's open.
Yes, good evening. Thanks for taking my question. I would have two, actually. The first one would be on the, let's say, long-term trend for the LNG market because we had some, let's say, positive comments recently from some stakeholders like Baker Hughes or Technip Energy that, in a way, pushed up their forecast. And seeing your slide show that basically the Wood Mackenzie forecast at Q3 are basically the same one that they had previously, you still have a gap of something like 300 million tonnes. So I was wondering if you can share with us your view. Do you consider, let's say, the recent stakeholders that have given bullish comments too optimistic, or would you consider Wood Mackenzie maybe too prudent for the moment and that we should expect them to revise their forecast?
And the second question, I would try it because I know that you will not give any formal guidance for 2022, etc., but over the short term, would you consider, let's say, using your balance sheet and your strong cash position to, in a way, maintain the dividend for the shareholders as with, let's say, the official policy, at least 80% mathematically with the decline in earnings, it would imply a decline in the dividend? So would you consider using the cash to keep it stable exceptionally, for example, this year? Thanks a lot.
Thank you very much, Kevin. Good evening. On LNG, we saw the comments from Baker Hughes. The first of all is that we are trying to be consistent in the sources of information we are using. And we are using Wood Mackenzie. They are sticking to their approach. I will not betray a great secret in saying that the atmosphere is quite positive in the energy business, but still, we had a very important decision which has been taken this year. Let's see, we said in this presentation today that very significant contracts have been passed to LNG plant developers. The context is very positive, but let's be cautious. Still, since Qatar has decided the North Field Extension, no decision has been taken. Probably decisions are going to be taken in 2022.
What we are relying on, it's the same source of information than the one we provided to you in the past. Okay. So that's for the first question. For the second one on the dividend and our balance sheet structure, what I could say is that that is a decision from the board of directors. I do understand that it's quite interesting to know, but we cannot say anything about that before the board of directors decides something, and it is not the case for the time being.
Okay, thanks. And as a very quick follow-up, there is, in a way, one slide missing in your presentation. At the end of page one, you were saying that basically 92 vessels were needed for the project that have been sanctioned. Do you have this updated number at the end of Q3, please?
No, we don't have it. We don't have it. I just would like to underline several things. I would say that there are major figures on this chart for the Qatar project, for the Golden Pass project, and for the Mozambique project. And the orders for these three projects have not yet been passed. So the flow of orders we received are beside that, which in a certain way is confirming something that we were touching a little bit in our presentation, that the market is very much needing, appreciating, looking at very modern ships in order to reduce the CO2 emissions. And this replacement market, the more it goes, the more it becomes something real.
Okay, thanks a lot. Have a nice evening.
Thank you, Kevin.
We will now take our next question from the line of Jean-Luc Romain at CIC Market Solutions. Please go ahead, and then it's open.
Good evening. I have two questions, actually. One about your guidance at 285 to 315. It's still quite large as we are at the end of October. And I was wondering what could tip it towards the lower end or towards the higher end of the guidance. That's the first question. The second question is about hydrogen. There was a very interesting show, HyVolution going on yesterday and today in Paris, and Elogen presented their views. And when you look at their brochure, there's a kind of minimum 400 MW objective for sales of electrolysis capacity by 2030. What would it represent in terms of turnover? It was 400 MW of annual sales.
Okay, thank you very much, Jean-Luc, for this question. Yes, for the guidance, we are confirming this range, and we are going to be there. For hydrogen, we indicated that, and we did not give figures on the turnover. You know that it's a very dynamic market, and you know us. I mean, we are cautious, reasonable, prudent people, and we cannot change ourselves. So we will stick to that. Sorry for that, Jean-Luc.
No worries. Thank you.
Thank you.
As a reminder, please press the star and one on your telephone to ask a question. There are no further questions coming through on the phone lines, actually. We've just received a few more questions. We will now take our next question from the line of Jean-François Granjon. Please go ahead, and then it's open.
Yes, good evening. Just a question regarding the LNG as a fuel. So we see a strong rebound of new orders at 25 this year. Do you consider that there is a structural and long-term trend? So do you expect more orders in the coming months, more dynamic orders for this business? It was not the case previously. This is a great change for this year. So do you expect more dynamic orders of business for LNG as a fuel in the coming months?
The fact of the matter is that LNG as a fuel now is a reality. It has taken off finally, and we are taking our share of the market. For us, you know us, and we are seeing that since 2013. We consider that LNG is the way and the only way in the next couple of decades or the next three decades to clean up the emissions of the shipping world. And 2021 has been the year of takeoff of this activity. Still, we are so convinced of that as we are working hard on that. We still feel that the 20% dual fuel share on the container business is fairly small. So I would say that we are quite confident that it will continue the adoption of LNG as a fuel and in the months to come. So yes, we are quite positive on this business.
And it's a business where there is competition. There are other technical solutions which are experienced, and we are quite pleased by the fact that some owners who are operating our systems are coming back. It's what I call the proof of the pudding. The cake should be good if you take a second slice. And that's what some owners are doing. And finally, the ship owner world, it's a big world, but also it's a world where people are sharing experiences. So we hope they will share the lessons they've learned from the early experience with us and with LNG.
Okay, thank you very much.
We will now take our next question from the line of Jean-Luc Romain at CIC Market Solutions. Please go ahead, and then it's open.
Another question. It's on the services that were announced on top of your recent wins in LNG as a fuel. You have some services to optimize the working of those vessels you will supply the technology. Could it represent something important in terms of your turnover in the growth in your services turnover in the next few years?
Services, you know that it's a fairly small business compared to the rest of our businesses, and it's a business which is slightly growing. So the more it goes and the more we deal with new owners who are discovering LNG who would like to rely on an existing expertise, the more this business will grow. For us, in fact, I've always said that services, even though they are small, they are strategic because they are helping people to begin with LNG and to rely on LNG, to rely on our technologies. The motto there is, "Make LNG easy." So that's what we do with our set of services. So beyond the figures, which are maybe not yet impressive, I do admit they are very much facilitating the adoption of our technologies by newcomers.
Thank you.
We will now take our next question from the line of Jan Richard at Berenberg. Please go ahead, and then it's open.
Yes, good evening, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. I have two, please. The first one on your core business, LNG carriers. Did the shipyards report any sort of disruptions to their production schedule over the last few weeks, either because of workforce-related issues or because of disruptions to their own supply chains, and the second question would be on LNG as a fuel, so we are seeing this nice uptick in order intake, especially from the larger deep ocean vessels, so the smaller vessels, let's say six or 5,000 cubic meters and lower, are you trying to, because you do have some competitors here, but I was just wondering if you do consider your technology here to be ready or if you're trying to do some adjustments either to the cost of the solution, bring it down just to improve its competitiveness? Thank you.
On the disruption of operations from shipyards, we did not see anything. I know that they are suffering from steel price hikes, but it's a matter of price. It's not a matter of availability of steel plates. On LNG as a fuel, we were targeting large tanks, and you saw that we provided tanks of a smaller dimension, especially on a cruise ship, which is now in operation with Ponant, and we expect there as well that the experience is going to demonstrate to other owners that it can work and it can bring a lot of benefits.
I would say that among all our efforts in marketing, we are going to try to go down, if I may say, in sizes of tanks and to try to be convincing even for a smaller tank, not in degrading anything. It's not so much our style, but in showing that the benefits in terms of total cost of ownership are great, even though the tank is smaller.
Okay, thank you.
There are currently no further questions. I would now like to hand the call back to the CEO, Philippe Berterottière. Please go ahead.
I would like to thank you all for attending this conference. It's always a pleasure to discuss with you. Thank you very much, and I hope we are going to have the opportunities to continue to exchange very soon with all of you. Thank you. Good evening.
This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may all disconnect.