Wartsila's Ship Technology Outlook Brightens

Ship technology and power plant maker Wartsila missed profit expectations on Thursday, citing postponed energy projects, but new orders beat forecasts with the help of rising demand for its marine sulphur scrubbers.

Shares in the Finnish company dropped 4 percent by 0920 GMT after second-quarter core profit came in flat from a year ago at 123 million euros, way below the 147 million euros expected by analysts in a Reuters poll.

CEO Jaakko Eskola, however, said some sales had just moved to the following quarters and that nothing had changed in his view on the full year.

"As we deliver large power plants, it is typical ... We had expected some large deliveries to take place during the quarter, but they were moved to the next one," he told Reuters.

He said the outlook for its marine business had improved somewhat due to a pick-up in global shipbuilding.

Wartsila is also benefiting from maritime emission reduction demands by 2020 that are boosting demand for its so-called sulphur scrubbers.

Scrubbers strip sulphur as fuels are burned, allowing ships to continue using high-sulphur fuel oil.

Eskola said Wartsila received orders for 109 scrubbers during the second quarter, compared to about 80 it installed last year.

"The momentum is this year and next year ... it is not a huge business for us, but nice extra," he said, adding that Wartsila was the market leader in the segment, ahead of Sweden's Alfa Laval.

(Reporting by Jussi Rosendahl, editing by Gwladys Fouche and Adrian Croft)