The German shipbuilding company TKMS continued to grow last year. New orders worth over €3 billion were recently added.
According to the company, the order momentum in the first half of the /26 financial year was “consistently positive”. Both sales and adjusted EBIT increased.
TKMS recorded an order intake worth €3.4 billion thanks to new orders. These include an order from Norway for two additional 212CD class submarines and the largest torpedo order in the Group’s history for the 212CD program. At the end of March, the order backlog totaled €20.6 billion – a new record level for the Kiel-based company. For comparison: In the previous financial year, before the spin-off from Thyssenkrupp and its own IPO, TKMS had achieved an order backlog of €16.1 billion, which was also a company record at the time.
The high order backlog was processed as planned, resulting in sales of €1.16 billion in the first half of the year, which was above the previous year’s level (€1.06 billion). The shipyard’s adjusted EBIT also increased by 14%, reaching €60 million compared to €53 million in the previous year. At the same time, the adjusted EBIT margin improved slightly from 5 to 5.1%.
As expected, free cash flow fell sharply from €756 million to € -72 million due to the outflow of funds in the course of project completion. “Customer prepayments in connection with the major order under the 212CD program at the end of 2024 were the main reason for the extraordinarily high comparative figure,” TKMS announced. The company confirmed its recently raised forecast for the full year /26. Sales growth is still expected to increase by 2% to 5% compared to the previous year. The EBIT margin is expected to exceed 6%, rising to over 7% in the medium term.
“TKMS is on track and continues to grow,” said CEO Oliver Burkhard. “For the first time, our order backlog has exceeded the 20 billion mark; both sales and adjusted EBIT have increased significantly year-on-year. TKMS is ideally positioned to meet the high demand for advanced maritime defense solutions in Germany and our partner countries worldwide. As planned, we can cover the current order backlog with our own shipyard locations. Looking ahead, however, we are already examining possible international partnerships.”
Frigates and submarines under construction
According to the Kiel-based company, its sales campaigns in national and international competition continue to be promising. This includes the MEKO A-200 DEU project – the budget committee of the German Bundestag recently extended the preliminary contract concluded with TKMS. Four frigates are being built in Kiel to strengthen the German Navy’s anti-submarine warfare capability, with the first ship scheduled for delivery as early as 2029. In addition, a joint venture led by TKMS is the sole bidder in the selection process for the future German air defense frigate F127.
In the submarine sector, TKMS has submitted a non-binding offer and industrial package for up to twelve submarines as part of the Canadian submarine procurement program together with Germany and Norway. TKMS is also in final contract negotiations with India for the construction of six submarines.
“In view of the high order backlog, the consistent and efficient execution of our business is a top priority for TKMS,” said CFO Paul Glaser.
“The strong increase in sales and profitability in the first half of the year is primarily due to the progress made in the newbuilding business, the growing share of higher-margin projects in the Submarines segment and the growth in the Atlas Electronics segment. We therefore believe that we are well on track to achieve our target of sales growth of two to five percent and an adjusted EBIT margin of over six percent for the current year.”
Shortly after the end of the first half of the year, TKMS also made further progress: In April, the company signed a letter of intent with the Brazilian Ministry of Defense and local partners for the construction of four additional Tamandaré-class frigates.
In addition, TKMS signed a non-binding letter of intent for the possible production of TKMS products at Navantia’s shipyards in Spain. Following the submission of a non-binding offer to acquire German Naval Yards Kiel in January 2026, discussions between TKMS and the owners remain open-ended.
In addition, TKMS was the first company to achieve an Approval in Principle (AiP) for an autonomous unmanned underwater vehicle in the “Extra-Large Unmanned Underwater Vehicles” (XLUUV) class. The AiP marks a “groundbreaking milestone” in the approval process for large autonomous underwater vehicles.
On May 15, Andreas Görgen will also take up his position as a member of the Executive Board at TKMS. The former manager of the Chancellery will ensure that the order book is processed properly in future. “In addition, he will be involved in technology development and the expansion of the product pipeline, as well as exploring and establishing potential new partnerships for TKMS for further international development,” according to a statement from Kiel.
