Severfield reports record order book

Structural steel group Severfield said on Wednesday that full-year results were set to be in line with management’s expectations as it reported a record order book and struck an upbeat note on the outlook.

In an update for the year to the end of March, the company said its order book for the UK and Europe rose to a record £479m as at 1 April from £393m on 1 November 2021, as it has continued to secure a "significant" value of new work. The group said £382m of work was committed for the next 12 months.

The order book remains well-diversified and contains a healthy mix of projects across the group’s key market sectors, it said. In terms of geography, 94% represents projects in the UK, with the remaining 6% representing projects for delivery in Europe and the Republic of Ireland.

"We continue to be encouraged by the current level of tendering activity across the group, both in the UK and in continental Europe, and are well-positioned to take advantage of some significant opportunities in the industrial and distribution (battery plants and distribution centres), stadia and leisure, transport infrastructure, nuclear and data centre sectors," Severfield said.

"Despite seeing further input cost inflation (including in steel prices) and some disruption to raw material supplies as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, we are currently managing these effectively, and steel remains largely a pass-through cost for the group."

At 1455 BST, the shares were up 9% at 69.80p.