Business
Trading Statement
Trading Statement.
About this update from Spirax Group Plc.
[{"type":"text","content":"\n \n \n News Release\n \n \n \n \n \n Thursday 17th November 2022\n \n \n TRADING UPDATE\n \n \n \n Robust trading despite economic headwinds; profit guidance unchanged\n \n \n \n \n \n \n Thermal energy and niche pumping specialist, Spirax-Sarco Engineering plc, issues the following trading update in respect of the four months ended 31st October 2022.\n \n \n \n Economic Environment\n \n \n \n As expected, the macroeconomic outlook has continued to weaken. Global industrial production growth1 (IP) is now forecasted to be 2.9% in 2022, lower than 3.5% forecasted in July, although still above pre-pandemic levels. For 2023, the IP forecast has also been revised downwards to 1.0%, from 3.2% in July. \n \n \n \n Trading\n \n \n \n Underlying demand growth remained strong in the four months to the end of October despite the weakening IP forecast, with orders in Steam Specialties, Electric Thermal Solutions (\"ETS\") and Watson-Marlow's Process Industries remaining above our expectations at the Half Year Results in August. \n \n \n Demand from Watson-Marlow's customers in the Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology sector started normalising in the second quarter of 2022, reflecting lower COVID-19 vaccine demand. This trend continued in the four months to the end of October, with some customers rescheduling deliveries into 2023.\n \n \n Following the successful management of global supply chain challenges, as well as increases to our manufacturing capacity, Group organic sales grew strongly in the four months to the end of October.\n \n \n We remain focused on successfully addressing inflationary pressures through active price management. Steam Specialties' adjusted operating profit margins in the period were ahead of our half-year expectations and offset lower adjusted operating profit margins in ETS, where highly engineered solutions with longer delivery lead-times were impacted by higher material inflation. Watson-Marlow's adjusted operating profit margin in the period was lower than anticipated due to the rephasing into 2023 of higher margin sales to Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology customers, which resulted in a Group adjusted operating profit margin below that of the first half of 2022.\n \n \n On 29th September, the Group completed the acquisition of Vulcanic. For t...