Chamberlin Plc Regulatory News (CMH)

19 June 2020

Chamberlin plc

("Chamberlin" or the "Company")

Trading Update

Chamberlin plc (AIM: CMH.L), the specialist castings and engineering group, is pleased to provide a trading update following the announcement on 27 March 2020. 

The Company announces that the Walsall foundry reopened for production on 4 May 2020 following a three week closure. The machine shop, which also closed in April, has also reopened for production. While production levels at the Walsall factory are broadly in line with activity seen immediately prior to the impact from Covid-19, output levels at the Machine Shop are running at approximately 30% of that achieved before the COVID-19 measures.

Russell Ductile, the Company's Scunthorpe foundry operation, has remained open throughout and continues to operate at full production levels in response to customer demand. 

Petrel, Chamberlin's specialist lighting business has also remained open. However, due to suspension of a number of government and defence contracts, Petrel is operating at around 60% of normal sales volumes.

The health and safety of Chamberlin's employees has been, and remains, paramount. All operations are performed in line with relevant government guidelines and industry best practice specific to COVID-19 precautions. To date there have been no reported instances of any Chamberlin employee contracting COVID-19.

Chamberlin has taken advantage of the UK Government's measures to support business, including the furloughing of staff during the closure of the Walsall sites. The majority of employees are working normally with approximately 18% of the Company's workforce still furloughed.

Despite current levels of activity in the Walsall foundry being relatively high, the outlook for a number of the key markets, particularly across the automotive sector, remain uncertain. As a result, Chamberlin has taken steps to reduce costs in line with the expected reduction in demand.

Recognising the ongoing uncertainty across global markets, the Board continues to believe that it is too early to make any reasonable estimate of the financial impact on the Group during the current year and beyond.

The Company anticipates that the preliminary results for the year to 31 March 2020 will be announced in August 2020.

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014.

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