19th Feb 2014 10:39
LONDON (Alliance News) - Iron castings and machining business Castings PLC said Wednesday that it still expects its full-year results to be in line with current market expectations, after the anticipated drop in demand for trucks during January proved not to be as severe as expected.
The company makes parts for trucks. The industry had seen demand surge in the second half of 2013 ahead of new European Union laws governing truck engine emissions that came into effect at the start of this year.
The industry had expected the spike in demand for new trucks to wane after the new year once the new rules came into force, but Castings said the decline from the exceptional level of demand it had seen right up to the end of 2013 had not been as severe as the commercial vehicle market had anticipated.
In a trading update, Casting s said the short-term variable demand has continued to cause certain "inefficiencies" in its operation.
"Whilst we expect the current level of demand to continue to the end of this financial year, it is impossible to reliably predict any further ahead," said Chairman Brian Cooke in a statement.
Arden Partners is forecasting that Castings will report a pretax profit of GBP19.36 million for the 2014 fiscal year to end-March. The company had reported a pretax profit of GBP19.2 million for its last financial year, down from GBP23.1 million in fiscal 2012.
Shares in Castings were trading at 442.00 pence per share Wednesday morning, down 1.2%.
By Rowena Harris-Doughty; [email protected]; @rharrisdoughty
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