Member Article

Difficult international trading for Hessle-based Fenner plc lowers profit forecast

Hessle-based Fenner plc has reported poor international trading conditions and have said that these issues could reduce their profit forecast by up to 15%.

The business, a manufacturer of industrial belting and other polymer-based products, is organised into Engineered Conveyor Solutions (ECS) and Advanced Engineered Products (AEP)

The firm said that in the USA, trading conditions and the cautious sentiment in the coal industry have deteriorated and are showing no prospects for imminent improvement.

ECS is therefore expected to see significantly weaker results in the USA than previously anticipated for the remainder of the financial year.

In Australia, whilst trading conditions generally continue to improve reflecting elevated levels of mineral extraction activity, ECS has recently been notified that it was unsuccessful in a competitive tender for the supply of conveyor belt to an iron ore miner in western Australia , which it had previously expected to manufacture and deliver during the final quarter of the financial year.

The combined effect of these factors could be to reduce the Group’s underlying profit before tax by 10-15% relative to the prevailing market consensus forecast of £77.6 million.

However the firm said that the performance and outlook for AEP for the remainder of the financial year and beyond is unchanged and remains encouraging.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .