STX Europe has reported net income of NOK 326 million on revenues of NOK $4.9 billion for the second quarter ended June 20, 2011, compared to a loss of NOK 26 million on revenues of NOK 6.3 billion for the same period last year.

For the six-month period, STX reported income of NOK 562 million on revenues of NOK 9.8 billion compared to a loss of NOK 172 million on NOK 11.5 billion for the first half of 2010.

The Cruise and Ferries division posted EBITDA of NOK 86 million on revenues of NOK 2.1 billion in Q2 2011, compared to EBITDA of NOK 66 million on revenues of NOK 2.1 billion last year.

STX stated that market conditions for cruise ships and ferries are slowly improving, but remain challenging. For the first six months, EBITDA was NOK 66 million in 2011, compared to negative NOK 272 million last year. According to STX, the improvement year-over-year was largely attributable to better utilization and results at STX France, driven by lower costs and higher utilization of the yard’s capacity due to new cruise contracts won in 2010.

STX Finland has also improved its results through cost reductions.

STX went on to say that the financial performance in the business area is not satisfactory and strong measures have been taken to further improve the results.

At the end of Q2 2011, the cruise and ferries business area had an order backlog of NOK 16.2 billion, compared to NOK 13.3 billion at the end of 2010. The order backlog, including vessels under construction, consists of 13 vessels – three cruise ships, three ferries and seven so-called specialized vessels.