Chemring hit by bad weather but full-year expectations unchanged

Chemring has kept hold of guidance but said that annual results will now be increasingly weighted to the second half after severe winter conditions interrupted manufacturing operations at the start of the financial year.

The aerospace and defence firm said that the current environment heightened geopolitical uncertainty continues to position it well for growth as it reported an order book of £991m at 30 January, up 51% on the same point a year ago.

Chemring started the financial year on 1 November with order cover of 79%, which has now risen to 87%.

The company reported solid levels of demand and strong order intake across its Sensors & Information businesses, and Countermeasures & Energetics divisions.

However, it noted that adverse weather across a number of northern hemisphere Countermeasures & Energetics sites affected manufacturing and resulted in delays to some deliveries scheduled in the first quarter; though things are expected to recover in the second half of the year.

"The current financial year continues broadly to plan despite severe weather impacting operations at some of our manufacturing sites which has increased our H2 weighting," said chief executive Michael Ord.

Nevertheless, the board said its "expectations for FY24 performance are unchanged".

"Our order book momentum has been maintained with the receipt of several significant orders, demonstrating continued customer confidence in Chemring's market leading products and services."