Wartsila, the Finnish engineering group that provides lifecycle power solutions to the maritime and parts of the shore based electricity generation industries, says that the cruise ship building sector significantly outperformed the wider shipbuilding business in terms of how the business developed.

"The cruise vessel markets developed well with contracting volumes doubling compared to 2013," the company said in a statement. By contrast, the total number of newbuilding orders for all ship types placed in 2014 fell to 1,769 from 2,201 in 2013. The demand for offshore vessels was clearly lower than in the previous year, mainly due to the decline in oil prices, poor day rates, and spending cuts from international oil companies.

"Newbuilding prices are under pressure due to current market volumes. In the traditional merchant markets, contracting activity was slow and freight rates remained weak," the company said.

The group's Ship Power business area increased its order intake by 6% to €1.74 billion and it accounted for a third of all new orders the group won. The Ship Power business area's orderbook totalled €2.21 billion at the end of the year and its share of the group's total was just under 50%..

Group net profit fell to €389M ($428M) in 2014 from $425M in the previous year. Revenues rose to €4.78Bn from €4.61Bn, the company said in a statement.