LONDON (Alliance News) - Active Energy Group PLC Monday said there have been delays to plans for its hardwood wood-chip facilities and its softwood wood chip activities.
In a statement, Active Energy said the delay in the installation of new equipment at its hardwood wood chip facilities at Yuzhny Port will "inevitably" reduce forecast hardwood wood-chip volumes for 2015.
Delays in ordering the necessary equipment, as well as a longer-than-anticipated lead-time for installation and commissioning, mean a new production line under a plan to expand its product range to include pine-based softwood wood chip will now be operational in October.
"Our considerable investment in new equipment for our well-established hardwood product offering and an entirely new production facility for softwood wood chip will enable us to establish a firm foundation for the future to satisfy the continually-growing demand from our Turkish MDF manufacturing customer base," Chief Executive Richard Spinks said in a statement.
"Although the timing of these facilities upgrades has been delayed due to circumstances beyond our control, the board and I remain very confident that we will end 2015 with more than twice the production volumes achieved in 2014 - at improved margins due to the efficiencies we have implemented - and we anticipate that 2016 will show a further substantial growth in volumes, in line with our long-term business strategy," Spinks added.
Active Energy shares were down 9.0% at 6.00 pence on Monday morning in London.
By Samuel Agini; samagini@alliancenews.com; @samuelagini
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Active Energy (AEG)