Overseas projects driving Hill & Smith forward
CONSTRUCTION products supplier Hill & Smith has reported robust trading, largely based on overseas activity.
In an interim management statement for the period from July 1 to November 14 released this morning, the Shirley-based firm said the overall performance of the group for the period has been robust and the board’s expectations for the full year remain unchanged.
The international diversity and strength of its businesses, particularly in the USA, continue to underpin our performance, it suggests.
Net debt as at 31 October 2012 was £93.3m, compared with £89.1m as reported at the half year. The increase principally reflects the investment in its new galvanizing plant in the US and investment in capital projects in France and India.
“We are not anticipating any significant change to net debt ahead of the year end,” the firm said.
Hill & Smith said the pipe supports business continues to work through a record order book and plants in China, Thailand and the UK are fully loaded into Q1 2013.
The new Indian plant is working toward ISO9001 and customer accreditation. Early enquiries for 2013 are encouraging, the firm said.
“Our US utilities businesses continue to perform ahead of expectations and their order book remains strong.”
Hill & Smith said that, as expected, the programmes for UK roads have started to return to more normalised activity levels in the fourth quarter post the Olympics.
“In the period we completed the installation of our new gantry products on the M1 and M90 motorways and are currently in the process of concluding the contracts. We continue to expect 2013 to be a stronger year as a number of managed motorway schemes are planned to commence,” it said.
“We continue to see encouraging levels of demand for our utility products, particularly in the USA and Asia, driven by the requirements to update the US power transmission grid together with worldwide demand for power.
“Our galvanizing markets remain mixed with the US businesses enjoying positive demand from infrastructure projects, which will support their volumes in 2013. Whilst our French businesses remain resilient we continue to be cautious about the level of economic uncertainty within Europe.
“The UK market remains challenging due to a lack of industrial activity and competitive pricing.
“Overall, the board’s expectations for the full year remain unchanged with our international diversity continuing to provide resilience in the short term and encouraging organic growth potential in the medium to longer term.”
