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(Alliance News) - Vesuvius PLC on Monday reported "outperformance" in its year-to-date, leading the FTSE 250 constituent to bolster full-year guidance.
Shares in Vesuvius were up 7.9% at 348.60 pence in London early Monday.
The London-based molten metal flow engineering said trading in May and June was stronger than expected despite "ongoing end-market weakness".
As a result, Vesuvius expects to report a trading profit for the first half of 2022 of GBP127.4 million. This would be sharply higher than the GBP73.3 million reported a year before.
"Our outperformance in H1 was due to the successful implementation of our pricing strategy to recover input costs as well as market share gains, supported by our technological differentiation," the company said.
While Vesuvius said there remains significant uncertainty looking ahead due to the geo-political environment and a softening economic backdrop, it expects annual trading profit towards the upper end of market forecasts.
This is despite anticipating a "material drop in volume" in the latter six months of 2022 compared to the first half and challenging cost inflation.
Vesuvius expects its full year trading profit to be towards the top end of the range of current analysts' expectations of GBP155 million and GBP199 million. This compares to GBP142.4 million in 2021.
"While the scale of the potential slow-down remains highly uncertain, we are confident that we can deliver a resilient performance and emerge stronger once end markets return to growth," the company said.
By Lucy Heming; lucyheming@alliancenews.com
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