Vesuvius warns on profits as costs mount

(Sharecast News) - Vesuvius warned on Friday that profits were set to fall this year, hit by a softer macroeconomic backdrop and mounting costs. The firm, a specialist in molten metal flow engineering and technology, said trading in the four months to 30 April had been in line with expectations.

Revenues were broadly unchanged, hit by "challenging" end-markets, while trading profits were lower year-on-year, "driven by higher raw material costs and labour cost inflation".

It therefore now expects prices to rise throughout the rest of the year, in part to recover these costs.

Vesuvius said the imposition by Donald Trump of tariffs on the global steel sector had so far not impacted on the business.

But it warned: "However, the macroeconomic environment and a further slowdown in global industrial activity coupled with ongoing softness in our end markets may impact our ability to fully recover all cost inflation.

"We now therefore expect trading profit to be slightly lower than 20204 on a customer currency basis, although the level of uncertainty remains high."

As at 1000 BST, the FTSE 250 stock was down 2% at 368.31p, having earlier fallen as much as 6%.