Earnings improved at Fluor, Irving, Texas, in the fourth quarter, which the engineering and construction contractor for the Department of Energy attributed Tuesday to improved efficiency and certain financial adjustments.
Net earnings for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31 were $9 million, or a loss of $0.01 a share, up from a net loss of $278 million, or $2.03 loss per share in the fourth quarter of 2021, the company said in an earnings release.
Full 2022 earnings were $145 million, or $0.73 a share, up from a loss of $405 million, or 3.04 a share, in 2021. Fluor said fourth quarter earnings include $16 million, or $0.09 per share, for a legal ruling on the Denver Commuter Rail project, completed in 2019.
Fluor quarterly revenue was $3.7 billion, up year-over-year from $3.6 billion in the year-ago period. Annual revenue was $13.7 billion, down from about $14.2 billion in 2021.
Quarterly segment net profit for Mission Solutions, the segment where Fluor quarterbacks joint ventures in the DOE weapons complex, was $20 million, down from $38 million in the year-ago period. Annual profit for Mission Solutions was $136 million in 2022 down from $155 million a year ago.
Mission Solutions quarters revenue was $509 million, down from $880 million in the year-ago quarter. The annual segment revenue was $1.67 billion, down from $1.72 billion in 2021.
The Mission Solutions numbers were hurt by completion of a program in Afghanistan, the completion of a Department of Energy contract in 2021 and the completion of humanitarian support for Afghan evacuees in the first quarter of 2022.
Fluor-led Savannah River Nuclear Solutions received good news last September when DOE announced the venture would stay on as managing contractor for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina through September 2027, said David Constable during a morning earnings call.
Also, the Fluor-BWXT cleanup contractor at the DOE’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio has been extended until September. In addition, Flour in in the running for major new environmental business at the DOE’s Hanford Site in Washington state, the company said in a presentation Tuesday morning.
Fluor remains the largest investor in NuScale, the small modular reactor developer, which reported $28 million in quarterly earnings, up from $27 million a year ago. NuScale had $72 million of annual earnings, up from $71 million in 2021, according to the release.
“In 2022, we demonstrated our resilience, continued to grow and remained steadfast in taking actions to achieve positive results,” Constable said in the release.
