18th May 2021 11:27
(Alliance News) - Hardide PLC dropped deeper into loss in the first half of its financial year, but said Tuesday it is seeing signs of recovery across all its markets and is making particular headway with aerospace customers.
The Oxfordshire-based company develops advanced surface coating technology using tungsten carbide and tungsten metal.
Its pretax loss widened to GBP1.5 million for the six months that ended March 31 from GBP347,000 a year earlier, as revenue dropped by 41% to GBP1.8 million from GBP3.0 million while administrative expenses were reduced only slightly.
Hardide said the GBP1.8 million in revenue in the first half was in line with the second half of financial 2020 and with its own expectations. While its own sites continued to operate throughout, the Covid-19 pandemic badly hurt its key energy and aerospace customers.
Looking forward, Hardide said it is seeing positive signs of recovery in demand across all of its markets.
"Whilst the group has had a challenging first half and the ongoing effects of Covid-19 remain unclear, there are signs of improvement across all of our key markets," said Chair Robert Goddard. "Revenue from energy, flow control and aerospace customers all increased in the first half compared with H2 2020 with sales to aerospace customers increasing by 26% and to energy and flow control by 4% each. Predictably, the recovery in demand from oil and gas customers is slow."
Hardide said a long-term agreement with a German supplier to airplane maker Airbus SE is in the final stages of preparation for the coating of multiple Airbus A320 and A330 components. Meanwhile, it said Airbus will complete all process approvals and audits for Hardide's Longlands Road site, which will serve aerospace customers, by July.
Hardide shares were down 3.0% at 37.85 pence on Tuesday morning in London.
By Tom Waite; [email protected]
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