The company fell to a $120.6 million loss for the six months to December, a big fall from the $22.3 million profit posted at the same time last year.
A $134.9 million non-cash writedown was a key contributor to the loss, with the impairment including goodwill write-offs in the AES Equipment Solutions business.
It also included reductions to carrying values due to expected lower resale prices on high-hour, low utilisation and non-core fleet.
Managing director Jules Pemberton said the result was “clearly disappointing” but there were still a number of bright spots, with revenue up 9.5% to $570.4 million and cash levelling at $138.9 million.
A new contract extension announced this morning with Middlemount Coal is also expected to boost the bottom line.
“Despite the reported net loss the group delivered a good cash result contributing to further debt reduction of $22.6 million in the six months,” Pemberton said.
Along with the writedown, another big contributor to the loss was a contract dispute with Samsung C&T over a rail earthworks contract at the Roy Hill project.
“Discussions with Samsung C&T have been constructive but the outcome remains uncertain hence the decision to recognise revenue only to the extent of costs incurred on the contract,” Pemberton said.
“With the critical path formation construction now complete and handed over, we have started working closely together with Samsung C&T’s commercial team through an agreed process which has a targeted final contract resolution date of 31 March, 2015.
“The impact on the full year financials will be communicated when those discussions have been concluded.
“We remain committed to achieving a positive outcome on the contract which we have performed on time and to a high quality standard.”
Moving forward, NRW said the mining sector continued to face strong headwinds, with a number of resource companies cutting costs and deferring projects.
Despite the tough conditions, the contractor said there were a number of prospects in the mining and drill and blast business.
It said it was also pursuing a number of large infrastructure projects in the public sector.
