Ocean Power Technologies Inc (NYSE-A:OPTT) (OPT) is benefitting from increased demand for autonomous vehicles for maritime applications from enterprises operating in Latin America.
Last month, the company secured $1.25 million in orders from multiple clients in the region for its Wave Adaptive Modular Vessel (WAM-V) uncrewed surface vehicles (USVs), which have a range of maritime applications including data gathering, security surveillance, and environmental oversight.
Then the company announced this week that it has received orders totalling $1.5 million for multiple WAM-Vs from a customer engaged in the offshore energy service industry in Latin America. The WAV-Vs will be used in hydrographic applications, it said.
“We’re very excited about Latin America,” OPT CEO Philipp Stratmann told Proactive in an exclusive interview.
“It’s a market that we have previously looked at but never actively pursued and what we’re seeing is materially increasing demand, appetite, and desire for autonomous systems out in the ocean of Latin America.”
Stratmann highlighted that trends around the growing demand for autonomous ocean vehicles for defense and national security are translating into opportunities in the form of purchase orders for OPT.
“We’re barely scratching the surface of what’s possible in terms of numbers of these assets that can go out, be that in Latin America, North America, the Middle East, the Mediterranean or other parts,” he said.
“We think there is an inflection point we find ourselves at as society overcomes any concerns they might have to do with autonomous operations on the ocean.”
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