Areva order book increases despite Fukushima disaster

French nuclear energy giant Areva said Thursday its order book increased by 3.1 percent last year to 45.6 billion euros ($59.8 billion) despite Fukushima nuclear disaster hitting sales.

Sales in 2011 dipped by 2.6 percent to 8.87 billion euros, with canceled orders in the wake of the disaster at the Japanese nuclear plant totalling 464 million euros, Areva said in a statement.

Fourth quarter sales held up even better, showing just a 0.5 percent decline to 2.9 billion euros.

However the reactor fuel unit took a 12.6 percent hit over the year due to the halting of operations at several Japanese nuclear plants following the March 2011 Fukushima disaster.

The services unit also saw sales drop 3.6 percent as design and construction projects were slowed in several countries.

The sales results were broadly in line with guidance Areva provided last month when the company said it expected to end with an operating loss of 1.4 to 1.6 billion euros.

Areva announced last month 2.4 billion euros in provisions, said it planned to sell 1.2 billion euros in assets, slash investments by one-third over the next five years to 7.7 billion euros and squeeze costs to regain its competitive footing.